Tales of Shining Wire
by ADEEEE
Summary: After the snares and wires are gone from Cowslip's warren, Cowslip is chosen to be cheif rabbit. As he struggles to help the warren, an unexpected vistor appears and seems to attempt to ruin the warren permenantly
1. How the Snares Dissapeared

After Hazel and his friends left the Shining Wire warren, things began to change dramatically. One of the first things that happened was that the farmer hadn't planted any new snares for a while. It wasn't until after about a month that the farmer noticed this. As he was picking up a dead rabbit out of a snare, he saw that other than the one he just caught a rabbit in, there were only two snares left. Since he had to go to the hardware store for a different reason anyways, the farmer decided that he would by some more material to make some more snares.  
  
The rabbits in Cowslip's warren also noticed what was going on. In the past month, only to rabbits had disappeared without warning. Within this time, the warren of 32 rabbits had ballooned up to 48. Also, another doe was expected to have a large litter within a day. Cowslip at the time noticed that the snares were gone-the two that were left were on the outskirts of the warren were almost no rabbit went. When Cowslip told the others about how he thought the snares were gone, the warren selected him to be their chief rabbit. He didn't know the farmer was planning on planting the snares the next day.  
  
As it so happened the farmer did go out to the hardware store. Problem was that the hardware store was a good 3-hour drive away. Nevertheless, the farmer set out at around sunset, and told his family that he would be getting home at around midnight. While the farmer was away, though, the thing that every man fears happened to his family. At ten at night, when only the farmer's wife and fourteen-year-old son were up, three buglers armed with handguns and knives broke in. They shot the farmers oldest son as he ran for the rifle on top of the gun rack. Than they went after the farmers wife and 4 young sons and daughters and brutally sliced all but one of the farmers kids to death. The one survivor was mortally wounded and died within the next hour.  
  
When the farmer got home, he found a bunch of police cars and ambulances surrounding his home. When he heard the news, the farmer thought that he would never be able to stay on the farm again, and put it up for sale the next morning. It was bought within a week, and the new farmer posed no threat to Cowslip and the rest of his rabbits. The rabbits believed for many years that Frith had sent messengers to save them from the evil farmer and his family. The warren was free. 


	2. Forming the Owsla

Keeping order around the warren was getting to be a problem for Cowslip. Back when the snares were all over the warren, there were few rabbits so there was really no need for any order. But now with the size of the warren, there were many fights over entirely useless things. Since he had no idea what to do, Cowslip consulted Silverweed, the smartest rabbit in the warren, on it.  
  
"I think I might have a couple suggestions," Silverweed told Cowslip when he cornered him and told him about the problem. "And they are." Cowslip snapped back at him. Cowslip was getting very tired of the fights over nothing. Just two days ago a rabbit had gotten killed in a fight for an empty burrow. The sad part was that there was another one exactly like it about a yard away. "We could try to start an Owsla. or maybe we can send some of the more reckless ones to found a new warren," Silverweed said anxiously. He wasn't in the mood at the moment to have Cowslip on him like a dog for what Silverweed considered to be a really easy problem to deal with. Cowslip broke his thoughts with his response. "Well I suppose we could try starting up an Owsla, but sending a bunch of them into the forest would be like sending them into a pit full of starved foxes." "Okay so starting up an Owsla it is," Silverweed said, "so what should I do at the moment." "Go look at some of our rabbits and bring me the ones that will keep order, not prevent it. In the meantime I'll go and talk to Winters Wrath about it. Go on, get going." And with that Cowslip took off leaving Silverweed alone. Silverweed just rolled his eyes and set about on his new task.  
  
Winters Wrath was the biggest doe in the warren. She could also fight pretty well also. Just a week before she had killed a stoat that kept coming back to the warren again and again. She sat calmly in her burrow with her mate Hawkweed when Cowslip approached.  
  
"What do you want Cowslip-rah," Winters Wrath asked him soothingly as he approached the burrow. "I want to talk to you about the whole order problem. You see, I have a solu." " You want to start an Owsla," Hawkweed cut in., "Silverweed told me already. He also told me to meet him in the Great Burrow a little while after Ni-Frith." Cowslip couldn't help feeling a little bit of weirdness in the air. For one, Silverweed had actually done his job quickly this time. Cowslip had only stopped once on the way to Winters Wrath's burrow and Silverweed had managed to get to the burrow to talk to Hawkweed. Another thing was that Silverweed and Hawkweed had resented each other since the gang of eleven rabbits invaded the warren. Cowslip decided to just tell Winters Wrath what he wanted to tell her. "I think you should be captain of the Owsla," Cowslip blurted out." "Wonderful," Winters Wrath said, "it's a little after Ni-Frith, lets go see what Silverweed has to say. So Hawkweed, Winters Wrath, and Cowslip headed of to the Great Burrow to see what Silverweed had to say about the new Owsla. 


	3. The Journey

A rustling sound came from the distance. Flash ran up to were the sound came from and found that it was only a hedgehog. When he saw that no elil were around, Flash ran back to where his friends were standing.  
  
Flash had been a hutch rabbit for about a year of his life. He had lived a great life inside a rather large hutch that he shared with a guinea pig. When Flash was 11 months old, though, his old master died and the old mans son did not want to keep Flash anymore.  
  
So Flash and his guinea pig companion, Splotch, were set loose in a little meadow in front of a forest. Flash and Splotch had wandered through forests, meadows, and even through a couple rivers. During the first part of their journey, no elil came to them because they smelled of man. The problems happened later when the smell started to where off. Stoats, weasels, and even an old cat attacked them. All of these were killed by Flash, who was and always been a "rabbit out of hill" and could fight anything that went after him. Later on a rabbit named Snowfoot joined them.  
  
Snowfoot was a large snowshoe rabbit. His mother had lived in Alaska. Two days after Snowfoot and his five bothers and sisters were born, though, three coyotes mortally injured his mother. When a kind man saw the injured rabbit crawling back to her hole, the man picked up the rabbit and her litter and put them in a hutch. Even though Snowfoot's mother did die, she survived long enough to nurse her kittens up to the time they could eat greens. Of Snowfoot's six brothers and sisters, only one was set loose back into the Alaskan wilderness. The man kept four of the rabbits as pets, but gave Snowfoot to his tree-hugger nephew in England. The man's nephew thought that it was wrong to leave animals cooped up in cages, so he set the ten-month-old snowshoe rabbit loose in the English wilderness. From there, Snowfoot wandered the land, looking for any salvation. Since Alaskan rabbits, even though Snowfoot only was in the wilderness there for two days, are bigger than the England rabbits. Because of his size, Snowfoot easily fought and killed or drove off any stoat or weasel that attacked him. As for foxes, Snowfoot could usually hide from them, but once or twice he had to run from them when they sniffed him out. Eventually, Snowfoot ran into Flash and Splotch and decided to help them find a place to settle down permanently. Another traveling hutch rabbit that went by his man given name, Horace, eventually joined the trio.  
  
Flash ran back to where his friends were standing. "Just a yona," Flash said to Horace, who had heard the noise. "Well we might as well continue then," Horace said. "I heard from a mouse that there was a warren nearby. He said that it was over there." "I don't know if we should trust that creature," Splotch said calmly, "I heard that they aren't the smartest things in the world." "Nevertheless we have no choice but to trust him," Flash said, "We've been traveling for hrair days. We've killed a bunch of these so-called elil, but something's bound to get one of us sometime." "You know what I say," Snowfoot said, we should just stop this wandering thing and settle down right he- "I don't think that would work at all, Splotch cut in. "Yeah, keep in mind that we have no does with us Snowfoot," said Horace, "so its settled, he continued. We go westward to find that warren that the mouse was talking about." Snowfoot reluctantly agreed, and the rabbits headed off westward to the Shining Wire warren. 


	4. Meet The Members

"I suppose you're all wondering why we're here today," Silverweed shouted over all the talking amongst the 11 rabbits that were there. The second he said this, all the chatter died down. Cowslip looked amongst the rabbits that were there. Winters Wrath was there, and so were a couple other obvious choices, Dogwood and Buttercup.  
  
Dogwood was a rather medium sized buck that was well liked throughout the warren. Though he was only 11 months old, Dogwood had always had a hand in gathering food, repairing burrows, and doing any fighting that had to be done. About three months before, Dogwood had helped Cowslip lead an attack an attack on two rabbits that had come from an "enemy" warren. Even though the attack was entirely unsuccessful, Dogwood had gained a lot of respect for leading it.  
  
Buttercup was a quite and honest twelve-month-old doe that had always tried to break up a fight when she could. Buttercup was also Winters Wrath's sister, and had always helped Winters Wrath with any outside warren patrolling.  
  
Other than Winters Wrath, Dogwood, and Buttercup, Cowslip had no idea why the others were there. Among the others were Walnut, a rather large buck that Cowslip had that to be pretty stupid, Corona, a ruthless 15-month- old buck that Cowslip thought would send the warren into total chaos rather than keeping order, Poppy, a rather smart doe, but she was a little to young to get the other rabbits to obey her, Pimpernel, a rabbit that had been captured by Dogwood and Hawkweed after trying to dash away after the seven rabbits attacked the party of three. Pimpernel was hated throughout the warren, not mainly for the things he did inside the warren, but the company he had been traveling with. A rabbit called Vervain, who was very popular throughout the warren, had gotten killed in the scuffle that had occurred during the attack. Cowslip himself had almost gotten killed when he tried to run down one of the scavengers. Along with Pimpernel, there was also Hawkweed. Even though Cowslip had a lot of respect for Hawkweed, Hawkweed struck Cowslip as the type, like Corona, to disobey rules rather than enforcing them. Along with Hawkweed, Cowslip was sort of glad to see one of the calmer bucks named Thistle. Even though Thistle was good at enforcing rules, he was also very small and was always getting picked on by certain larger bucks, one of which, Ivy, was with them at the moment. Ivy was a good fighter going by the Cowslip's warren standards, but Ivy was known to be extremely mean to does and kittens. Other than Silverweed, there was also a rather hefty buck called Mallow who was most rabbits' typical Owsla standards. Mallow was an outskirter, even though he was as old as Corona, and was barely known around the warren. Mallow lived in a burrow with his mother, sister, and two brothers. He was always competing with his brothers for power, so being selected for the Owsla was a big thing for him.  
  
"So is this everyone?" Cowslip asked Silverweed. "Yes Cowslip-rah, it is," said Silverweed, "and you'll be delighted to know that I selected each rabbit rather carefully." Cowslip gave Silverweed a dead stare. "Why is he staring at me," Silverweed asked Winters Wrath. "I just don't think she liked your choices very much," Winters Wrath responded quickly. Silverweed was about to reply when Cowslip exploded. "I don't call these rabbits you picked even close to Owsla standards. I mean do you really think that rabbits like Thistle and Poppy are going to even be able to give one damn order and have it be carried through. And do you think that Ivy and Corona are going to be able to go one day on the job without killing someone. And then there's Walnut. Do you really think that Walnut can even tell the difference between a mouse and a fox? And WHY did you even think of putting Pimpernel on our Owsla. Have you even noticed that he is the most hated rabbit in our warren? Our rabbits will die before they take one order from him. But fine. I trust you judgment since you are SO smart. But not Pimpernel, not Walnut, and not Thistle is getting the least power in the Owsla. YOU are." With that Cowslip stormed out of the hole and went back to his burrow.  
  
When Cowslip left the Great Burrow, Winters Wrath began to speak. "Look everybody," she said calmly; " I want Buttercup here to take Thistle, Poppy, Walnut, and Pimpernel on a training patrol." "Mallow, I want you to break up any fights that occur within the warren. Also, keep an eye out for any approaching elil. If you see any, alert me." "Yes captain," Mallow responded. Winters Wrath continued, "Dogwood, would you please take Corona and Ivy into your burrow and give them a talk about enforcing the rules and not breaking them." "Hawkweed," Winters Wrath asked her mate, "I want you to start repairing Dew's burrow. I heard that half of it collapsed for some reason." When you're done," she continued, "Drive out the rats from one of the empty burrows. We've got a grown up litter of kittens that needs somewhere to live." "But what if we finish early," Ivy asked. "If you finish early then you can take a break until after the daily story finishes and the other rabbits go back to their sleeping burrows. That's when we will have another quick meeting to see what we will be doing tomorrow. Everyone must attend except for you Mallow since I want you keeping an eye out for fights until everyone comes down here to hear what story Silverweed or Willow will tell tonight. As for me and Silverweed," Winters Wrath continued, "we have the toughest job of all, talking to Cowslip." "This meeting is adjourned," Dogwood said loudly. When those words were spoken, the whole Shining Wire warren Owsla piled out of the Great Burrow to do the jobs that they had been assigned. 


	5. Authors Note

Okay, I just changed a few things on this story. As someone said, I did need to change Snowfoot's origin a little bit. I did do that, and as one reviewer said that I should start a new paragraph for each speaker, and I'm going to start doing that after chapter six, since I already wrote chapters five and six. As for the first chapter, I had no idea that Watership Down took place in England when I wrote that chapter. Thank you reviewers who have read this story, I will update it soon. By the way, all your questions will be answered on this page. 


	6. Cowslip Concedes

Poppy woke from her sleeping burrow with a start. "Am I late?" she thought to herself. She quickly ran out of her burrow just to find that Frith had barely risen. "Good," she thought to herself. She was supposed to report to Buttercup a little bit later in the morning to go on another training patrol. Poppy had just figured out that her, Thistle, Walnut, and Pimpernel were all part of the garden raiding and patrol team. They were under the control of Buttercup, who Poppy didn't mind at all. Poppy was personally glad that she wasn't part of Dogwood's warren police team. Not that she minded Dogwood or Mallow at all, but Corona, Ivy and Hawkweed were three rabbits that she hated and wanted to keep away from. Poppy thought that she would also hate to be in the place of Winters Wrath, as the Owsla commander and chief, who had to deal with morons like Walnut and renegades like Hawkweed, Corona, and Ivy. "I'd also hate to be in Silverweed's position right now as well," Poppy thought to herself. Silverweed had been chosen to be Cowslip's advisor, not a very great job. Poppy also wondered how Silverweed and Winters Wrath had persuaded Cowslip to keep the Owsla the way it was. "I guess the pair just bulled Cowslip-rah into concession," Poppy said out loud. She gave the idea no more thought and went out to a patch of grass to eat. She had no idea how easy it was for Silverweed and Winters Wrath to persuade Cowslip into keeping the Owsla. ************************************************************************  
  
A day before  
  
Cowslip had been fuming in his burrow ever since he had gotten to it. "How could I be damned with such a horrible Owsla," Cowslip thought to himself. "Stupid Silverweed." He was about to shay something out loud when Winters Wrath and Silverweed appeared in his burrow.  
  
"Where's the rest of our Owsla," Cowslip scoffed at the pair as they walked in. "I sent them out on some jobs," Winters Wrath said quickly, "anyways, we're here to tell you why nothing is wrong with our Owsla." "I'm listening," Cowslip sneered. Silverweed began, "I suppose you're wondering why Poppy and Thistle are in the Owlsa." "Yes, I am," spat Cowslip. Silverweed continued, "well I thought that we needed a couple smart rabbits other than Dogwood, Buttercup, and of course Winters Wrath on our Owsla. They'd also make great garden raiders because they are hard to see and can slip through small spaces. As for Corona and Ivy, I think we do need a little bit of muscle behind our Owsla to enforce the orders. By the way, they are two of the strongest rabbits in the warren. And right now, Dogwood is giving them a nice little chat about what will happen to them if they try to pull anything. As for Walnut, he isn't as stupid as most rabbits say he is. Even though he can't fight very well like most of the rabbits in our warren, he is very good at calming down rabbits in the middle of a crisis. Mallow is actually my second choice for captain, lower than Winters Wrath of course. Mallow is pretty smart, and he actually can fight very well. Thing about Mallow is that he's more or less the quite type that keeps to himself. As for Hawkweed, he isn't too smart, but he's smart enough. He can fight when he's put up to the test, and he very good at repairing burrows. As for Pimpernel, he is the only rabbit in our warren that has any Owsla experience. Though he wasn't in the Owsla at his old warren, he did do a couple garden raids and patrols. I think that Pimpernel would be a very good patroller and garden raider." "Well there you have it," Winters Wrath said, "So what do you think Cowslip-rah?" "I guess you're right," Cowslip quietly said. "You two should better leave before I change my mind," he added. Winters Wrath and Silverweed quickly scurried out of Cowslips burrow. 


	7. Foxes and Sightseeing

Horace grumbled something to himself as he jumped into the small river that he and his friends had to cross. Horace was really getting tired of swimming through rivers, foraging through thorn bushes, and slowly traveling through gaps of trees all to find some warren that might not even exist. Horace knew that Splotch was no idiot, but he didn't think that Splotch was using the best judgment when he decided to follow what the mouse had said. Nevertheless, Horace knew that Splotch was a lot smarter than Flash and Snowfoot, and even himself for that matter. Also, Horace knew that mice didn't usually lie to rabbits for many obvious reasons.  
"Snowfoot," Horace called out to his companion who had already crossed the river, "Snowfoot, where are you."  
"Shhhh, be quite," Snowfoot snapped in a loud whisper. Snowfoot was hiding behind a bramble bush and seemed to be intently watching something. "Don't you see that cat over by those trees?"  
Sure enough, when Horace crouched down next to Snowfoot, he could see a medium-sized male tabby cat eating what appeared to be the remains of a young stoat. "How long have you been watching this thing for?" asked Horace.  
"For the past two minutes maybe," Snowfoot replied. "I was just walking around after I got out of that river and I just stumbled upon that thing. It saw me, but it just snarled at me and told me to get away. It might have attacked me if it hadn't already killed the stoat."  
"Why didn't you fight it," Horace asked. "I've seen you and Flash drive off quite a few stoats and weasels since I've joined your company."  
"I don't fight cats," Snowfoot said calmly. "They can fight a lot better than these weasels and stoats around here, that's probably why it killed this one stoat, and they are a little bit smarter than the red foxes that live around here." Snowfoot and Horace sat in silence for about a minute and watched the cat finish its meal and walk away. After it left, Splotch walked up to them. He had a small scratch on his cheek an on his haunch.  
"Thanks for helping me and Flash drive off that young weasel," Splotch said sarcastically. "Where were you guys anyways."  
"We were watching some cat that came around here," Horace said. "It never really posed any threat to us, but we thought that we'd better keep an eye on it for a while. And what weasel are you talking about."  
"Oh, a small weasel about five months old attacked Flash," Splotch answered. "It didn't do too much harm to him, but it did scratch me when I tried to bite it. "Anyways," he continued, "Flash drove it off within a minute, and now he's looking to see if there's any more weasels about."  
Snowfoot was about to say something, when Flash himself hopped up to them. "We'd better get out of here as fast as we can, Flash said, "There's a homba on the other side of the river we just crossed. It appears to have caught our scent."  
"I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary when I was on that side," Horace replied. "Nevertheless, we'd better get out of here before that fox gets anywhere nearer to us." All four of the wanderers bean to run at that moment as if the fox was right behind them. 


	8. The Horrible Raid

"WHERE THE HELL IS MY LETTUCE," screamed Cowslip as loud as he possibly could at Silverweed, Buttercup, and Winters Wrath. "I can't believe I trusted you with getting me the greens I wanted," Cowslip said a little but quieter this time to Buttercup. "I give you one small task to do for me, and you completely screw it up," he continued.  
Two days before, Cowslip had asked Buttercup to take four rabbits and raid the farm garden. Buttercup had automatically agreed, and rounded up four of the rabbits in the Owsla. They were Pimpernel, Walnut, Ivy, and Thistle. They had set out at around ni-frith, and headed to the farmhouse. Everything went wrong with the raid. The rabbits had no idea what to do, and all of them but Pimpernel and Buttercup got lost before they even got to the garden. When Buttercup reached the garden with only one of her raiders left with her, she decided that it would be best just to round up the others and head on home. It took over a day to find everyone and get back to the home warren and to a very angry Cowslip. "It wasn't Buttercup's faul-," Silverweed began, but Cowslip cut him short.  
  
"Then why don't I have my lettuce and carrots with me right now," Cowslip snapped at Silverweed. "I suppose Buttercup here had nothing to do with that." Cowslip was about to say something else when Winters Wrath cut it. "Silverweeds right Cowslip, it wasn't Buttercup's fault. It was the rabbits she was traveling with. They had no idea what to do, and they got lost. I think we might have to train them a little bit." "Train them," Cowslip sputtered, "great idea, only one problem, we don't have anyone to train them. Every single one of us in this warren knows just about as much as they do about garden raiding, patrolling, and fighting." "I do," Winters Wrath shot back at him. "Why do you think I was chosen by Silverweed to lead this Owsla. He knew that I had experience in everything that is required out of a decent officer." Cowslip was silent. Winters Wrath's marli had told him about some of the horrible deeds that Winters Wrath had done long back when the wires were still ripe in the warren. She had told him about how her daughter had never listened to her. She also told him about how her daughter destroyed her family. Winters Wrath continued. "When I was just a kitten, I'd realized what was going on in this place. I saw how you, Silverweed, Strawberry, and Mushroom were leading our warren into complete destruction. I told myself that I would do the best I could to get out of the way of life in this warren. When I was just five months old, I started going out on my own little training patrols and teaching myself how to fight. It was only two months later that I started teaching my six brothers and sisters along with Dogwood, Vervain, and Vine the same things I knew." At this, Cowslip interrupted her with her speech. "Ever wonder why your mother never talks to you anymore," Cowslip said. "It's because of those stupid patrols you did. You and your brothers and sisters were by far the strongest of the five litters your mother had. She had great expectations for all of you. Then, all but Buttercup and yourself got killed. Even Vine, who was very strong for his age, got his life taken." "Sure, most of my siblings were killed," Winters Wrath continued, "but Buttercup Dogwood, Vervain, and myself were the only rabbits in the warren that actually knew how to survive like normal wild rabbits. And I did notice that all of my siblings and friends were starting to die. Why do you think that I stopped taking other rabbits out on the patrols after three months? I thought that all three of the rabbits that survived my patrols could live the life of a regular rabbit. It appeared that I was wrong after you blew Vervain's life by taking out him and a bunch of our other rabbits out to attack three tired and hungry wanderers that just wanted shelter, food, and comfort all because they mentioned the names Hazel, Fiver, and Bigwig." "Never mention those names in front of me," Cowslip roared, " Apparently you didn't see what that rabbit Hazel and his group of goody-goodies did to our warren. The whole place almost went into civil war because of the things that they said." "Anyways," Cowslip continued, "Vervain was destined to have an early demise. He was a total moron. Killing him off and keeping the elil void of a meal was one of the only good things we did back in those times. But fine, why are we arguing? I want my greens as soon as possible, so I will let you train our Owsla. Start tomorrow for all I care." With that, Cowslip stormed out of his burrow. The next moment, Winters Wrath followed him.  
  
Silverweed and Buttercup had backed out of Cowslips burrow before the shouting match was even half over. When they backed out, they immediately bumped into Dogwood and Mallow, who wanted to talk to Cowslip about something. When the two rabbits heard the yelling from inside the burrow, they immediately questioned Buttercup and Silverweed about what was happening. "What's going on," Dogwood asked Buttercup. "It sounds like half of Frith's kingdom is caving in. "I know," said Mallow calmly and intently, "what did Winters Wrath do to upset Cowslip-rah this time. "It was mostly something that Buttercup here did," Silverweed answered. "The garden raid that Buttercup was taking out completely failed, and now Cowslip-rah is angrier than Prince Rainbow when El-ahrairah stole his carrots." "So that's why Ivy's injured," said Corona, as he approached the four talking rabbits from where he was on silflay by himself. "It's because Buttercup can't lead a raiding party without messing up." Buttercup cuffed Corona on the head before saying, "I didn't mess it up for your information. It failed because none of those stupid rabbits knows how to get into a garden, steal a carrot, and get out. Honestly, Cowslip-rah can be so idiotic when he doesn't get what he wants." "I think our chief rabbit gets so mad because he was so used to getting a free ride in life when the snares were still here," Dogwood said. "He misses getting all those valuable greens easily so much that he gets all stressed out when he has the opportunity to get them and doesn't." "I'll tell you what's wrong with him," said Hawkweed as he approached the group, "it's the fact that he doesn't have one hell of an idea of how to run this place." "Oh c'mon Hawkweed, that's a little bit too harsh," said Mallow. "If he had no idea how to run this place, then the rabbits of this warren wouldn't have chosen him to be chief rabbit when Frith killed the evil farmer." "Plus," he added, "I thought you liked Cowslip-rah." "I do," said Hawkweed as the shouting went on inside the burrow, "he can just be such a moron at times." "Getting back to the subject," Buttercup said, "I actually do agree with Hawkweed. Cowslip-rah has no idea what he's doing, and he shouldn't be called chief rabbit." Corona and Silverweed were both about to make replies, when Cowslip stormed out of his burrow. Without giving any of the rabbits a look, he hopped off as fast as he could. All six of the rabbits stared at each other when Winters Wrath came out of the hole.  
"Look alive and listen up," she said. "Tomorrow we start training for the Owsla."  
"I thought we all ready were in the Owsla," Corona said.  
"Yes, you are," Winters Wrath said, "but all of you need some training. As I was saying, tomorrow you all start training in garden raiding, patrolling, and fighting. Dogwood will be doing fighting, and Buttercup will be teaching patrols and raids. You have two months to pass the training. If you don't pass within the time, you're out of the Owsla, and someone else will take your place." "Corona, will you please spread the news to all the other members of the Owsla that aren't here," Winters Wrath continued, "and I assume the injured members will be better by tomorrow." She was about to hop off, when she turned to Silverweed and said, "by the way Silverweed, in a little while, I'll need you to help me console Cowslip. He's very pissed off." Without another word, the Owsla captain hopped off to talk to some of her friends that were out on silflay.  
"Training," said Silverweed, "training, Buttercup is your sister completely out of her mind?"  
"I have no idea," Buttercup replied, "but I have to go open another burrow, see you later." With that, Buttercup also left, and was followed a minute later by Corona, who was muttering something about the task he was assigned to. Mallow, Dogwood, Silverweed, and Hawkweed all looked at each other for a few moments until Hawkweed said, "I'm going out to the field to get a bite to eat, how 'bout the rest of you?" The other three agreed, so the four bucks made their way into the feeding field, where they would be training the very next day. 


	9. A Brief Battle and Awareness

"Okay, now we'll learn how to get out from beneath someone who's pinning you," Dogwood yelled out to Ivy, Thistle, Poppy, Pimpernel, and Mallow. The rest of the Owsla was on a training patrol led by Winters Wrath and Buttercup. "Ivy, pin down Thistle for me, will you," Dogwood yelled out again. Dogwood was getting very tired of trying to teach Ivy, Thistle, and Poppy an easy technique over and over again because they had no idea how to do it. Mallow and Pimpernel had known how to do it automatically, but the other three sucked at it. "Okay Thistle, can you please just get out of the pin so we can move on," Dogwood groaned. Thistle thrashed about for several seconds, only to get one of is front legs free.  
"No I can't, Thistle said through his gritted teeth, it's impossible because this fat rabbit on top of me is to heavy. Upon saying that, Ivy bit him on the cheek so hard that Thistle squealed out in pain.  
"Just cuff him with your free leg, you embleer fool," Pimpernel yelled from where he was standing with Mallow, "it's not that hard, just cuff him."  
At this, Ivy began to make more hurtful comments. "He's right you know," Ivy snarled at Thistle, "the embleer prisoner's a lot smarter and stronger than you, you stupid little piece of hraka." Upon seeing Thistle thrash with anger, Ivy continued. "You probably couldn't even fight off a field mouse. It's a wonder that Silverweed picked you for the Owsla, because you can't do anything right."  
At that moment, Thistle cuffed Ivy as hard as he could. When Ivy reared back in pain, Thistle rolled out of the pin and charged Pimpernel. "What are you doing, wasn't Ivy the one that called you good for nothing?" Pimpernel yelled loudly. Pimpernel was about to say something else, but Thistle charged up to him and began cuffing him as hard as he could.  
Pimpernel fought back using all the knowledge of fighting he had gained back at the Sandelford warren. Thistle soon found that Ivy was right when he said that Pimpernel was a lot stronger than he was. It didn't take long for Pimpernel to pin Thistle to the ground a lot harder than Ivy had.  
"You know, you should have thought twice about attacking me," Pimpernel said coolly to a terrified Thistle. He would have said more, but Dogwood knocked him off of the small, terrified rabbit. The second Thistle was up, he wasted no time in charging Ivy. The two were soon rolling around, fighting each other as hard as they could. Pimpernel and Dogwood were fighting with each other also, and it appeared that Pimpernel slightly held the upper hand.  
All of a sudden there was a sudden yell, "what in the name of Frith is going on here." It was Winters Wrath. She hopped into the battle scene closely followed by Buttercup and the rest of the patrol. Buttercup, Dogwood, Silverweed, and Winters Wrath took no time rounding on Pimpernel.  
"What in Frith's name were you thinking," screamed Winters Wrath. When Pimpernel gave no answer, Winters Wrath said, "let me put it in a different way, why were you fighting your commanding officer?"  
"He attacked me captain, he did," sputtered Pimpernel. Now Pimpernel had no problem standing up to most rabbits in the warren, whether or not it was one of the Owsla, a pregnant doe, or even Dogwood, Buttercup, Silverweed, and Cowslip. Winters Wrath was a different story. She was a hulking great rabbit with a short temper, and as far as Pimpernel could see, she had a huge bloodlust. Pimpernel didn't think Captain Holly and Bluebell combined could fight her off. Luckily she thought the same about the warren as he, or Hazel, Fiver, and Bigwig did. The only thing that kept her in the warren was the fact that she was captain of the Owsla.  
Winters Wrath was about to say something to Pimpernel when Buttercup said, "Dogwood, did you attack him?"  
"Only to keep him from killing Thistle," Dogwood replied. "He took the poor chap down in an instant after Thistle attacked him.."  
"Wait a second," Silverweed said. "Thistle, why did you attack him?"  
"He was making comments, sir. So was Ivy. They prompted me into fighting both of them," Thistle replied. No one knew why most of the rabbits in the warren called Silverweed sir. It was clearly obvious that Cowslip had barely given him any power at all, even though Cowslip apologized to Silverweed for his sudden outburst during the first Owsla meeting.  
After Thistle said that, the whole conversation went downhill. Winters Wrath, Dogwood, and Silverweed were debating over how to punish Pimpernel, Thistle, and Ivy after Winters Wrath had given them a long lecture in a loud tone about how irresponsible they all were.  
"I say we just throw our prisoner here out of the Owsla, and let Ivy and Thistle slide," said Dogwood, still angry about nearly losing a fight with what all the rabbits in the warren called Pimpernel, a lesser being.  
"I don't think that would be fair," said Silverweed, "after all, wasn't Ivy the one who started the whole thing in the first place?" "I say that we just suspend them from the Owsla for two weeks, and give them a fair warning."  
"I guess we could do that," said Winters Wrath. She, like just about every other rabbit in the warren, hated Pimpernel, but she also didn't like either Ivy or Thistle very much also.  
"What," screamed Dogwood, "you mean you're just going to take the side of our very own prisoner!?" "Don't you know that this embleer piece of hraka is lucky he wasn't killed." "I mean, didn't he kill Vervain?" Vervain had been a close friend of Dogwood, and Dogwood's main excuse for bagging on the poor rabbit was because of his friend's death.  
Pimpernel had grown angrier and angrier as he heard Dogwood yell out insults at him. Eventually, he couldn't help keeping his comment inside. "It wasn't me who killed your buddy, you idiot. It was one of the two rabbits I was traveling with. If it were up to me, I'd leave this horrible place in an instance, but you won't let me. I'll see you in two weeks." With that, Pimpernel stormed off back to his small burrow in a very angry mood.  
Winters Wrath sighed. She glanced around her to see Poppy explaining to Walnut and Hawkweed what happened. Ivy belching out the worst things he could think of about Thistle and Pimpernel to Corona. And Mallow and Buttercup edging off back to the home warren.  
"Silence," she screamed. "Mallow and Buttercup, get back here. Look," she said, "Ivy and Thistle, you are suspended for the next two weeks along with Pimpernel, yes Ivy, along with Pimpernel, now don't give me that look. The rest of you are dismissed for the day." With that, she headed off to talk to Cowslip in his burrow.  
  
"What is it Winters Wrath," Cowslip drawled on wearily. It was clearly obvious that Cowslip had been woken from his nap by the sounds of Winters Wrath charging into his burrow.  
Winters Wrath had come to tell him that Pimpernel, Ivy, and Thistle had been suspended from the Owsla for two weeks due to unnecessary fighting. She decided to go right through the cute stuff and tell Cowslip the punch line of what happened.  
"I had to suspend Ivy, Pimpernel, and Thistle for fighting with each other. Pimpernel also attacked Dogwood and would've beaten him, if I hadn't come," said Winters Wrath rather calmly.  
"What," said Cowslip, "tell me all of what happened." So Winters Wrath told Cowslip all about how she had found Pimpernel and Dogwood fighting with each other next to a gap of tree, and how Ivy and Thistle were rolling around on top of each other, kicking and scratching each other as hard as they could. She also gave him Dogwood's account of what happened.  
Cowslip took the news better than Winters Wrath expected. "Hmmm, stupid Pimpernel. I knew it was a mistake not to kill him. Anyways, can you get either Corona or Poppy for me?" Cowslip said.  
"Why," Winters Wrath replied.  
"I want either one of our news spreaders to tell Ivy, Thistle, and Pimpernel that their suspension time has been lowered to one week. Upon seeing Winters Wrath giving him a dead stare, Cowslip added, "I want every single one of my Owsla to know how to survive out in the wilderness as soon as possible, and if three rabbits haven't passed training at the same time as the others, it will be a real pain for Dogwood and Buttercup to teach them what's left to learn when they have other work to do."  
"But why do you need either Corona or Poppy," said Winters Wrath, "couldn't I just find them?"  
"Thing is," said Cowslip, "that I want either Corona or Poppy to be our messengers and send messages to rabbits on raids or patrols. I don't know if many warrens have rabbits that do that, but I think it's a pretty good idea. Anyways, tell one of them the message, and tell them to give it to our three attackers. I'll be getting back to my nap know."  
Winters Wrath took off out of Cowslip's burrow right after he said this. She did think that the messenger idea was good, and that Cowslip was actually starting to act more or less along the lines of a chief rabbit. Winters Wrath decided to get Poppy, since Corona was one of the strongest in the Owsla and was needed for patrols and raids, not sending out messages.  
It didn't take long for Winters Wrath to find Poppy, who was out on silf with Buttercup and Mallow. When Poppy heard what her new task was, she scuttled off as quickly as possible. Winters Wrath didn't stop to chat with Mallow or Buttercup very long and soon afterwards ran of to talk to some of her younger half brothers and half sisters, who were out on one of their very first silflays together.  
  
A Day Later  
  
Walnut had had a good training that day. He had become the third rabbit to get over halfway through training, only third to Mallow and Corona. It was now the early evening, and Walnut was very hungry. He went out to silflay with some of his friends. They were all talking about the fight that broke out the day before.  
"I don't know how that scummy little runt of a prisoner didn't get expelled from the Owsla," said Redwood, "I heard that he only got two weeks of suspension for it."  
"He got one week for your information," said Walnut as he approached, "it was Cowslip-rah's decision." All of Walnuts friends had been jealous of him, since he got into the Owsla, and that they didn't. For this reason, Walnut expected a haughty remark, but none came.  
"You don't say so," said Waterfall, "I heard that Thistle was pretty damaged after that fight. I think that's why he hasn't shown up on silf today. Either that, or he's just to embarrassed to show his face after being beaten heavily by Pimpernel."  
"I think it's just 'cause Thistle's a weakling," said Perloo who, like Ivy, was one of Thistle's tormenters. "I heard that Pimpernel fought Dogwood."  
Though Walnut's friends were not familier with Dogwood, Buttercup, or most of the Owsla for that matter, they knew that Dogwood was a high- ranking officer.  
"Wow," said Willow, "you mean that the prisoner actually had the nerve to fight of all rabbits, Dogwood. He might as well have fought Winters Wrath. You were there weren't you Walnut, did you see what was happening?"  
"Actually I did," said Walnut, "and Pimpernel's no wimp. He was beating Dogwood just barely, but he was beating him."  
"Never expected that," said Waterfall as he grabbed a mouthful of grass, "I didn't think that after the bad treatment he's had here that he would actually have the nerve." Out of all five of the young bucks, Waterfall was the one that was most sympathetic to Pimpernel.  
"Well he is in the Owsla isn't he," said Walnut as he hungrily chomped on some clover, "he even made a smart remark to Winters Wrath as he stormed off."  
"Wow, what was it," said Willow excitedly. Willow was one of the warren's favorite storytellers, and so he would most likely put together a tale about what Pimpernel had said to Winters Wrath, Dogwood, and Buttercup. So Walnut told them the comment that Pimpernel had made to Winters Wrath. The other rabbits awed in wonder as Walnut told them the remark that had been made. All of the rabbits were silently eating the grass for some time after Walnut had told them about what happened the day before.  
The silence was broken when Perloo said, "You're so lucky that you are in the Owsla, Walnut. You get to see all the good stuff happen."  
Redwood was about make a comment when someone yelled out "WALNUT." It was Buttercup. "Walnut, you were supposed to be at the meeting in the great burrow.  
Upon hearing this, Walnut said, "I don't call myself lucky." He then took off to the Great Burrow as fast as he could.  
Buttercup was about to leave to, but Perloo said, "hey you're an Owsla member right," he didn't know that he was talking to Buttercup, the captains sister.  
"Yes," Buttercup replied angrily. She was in no mood to be taunted by the young rabbits that stood before her.  
"Do you think you could fight off prisoner Pimpernel?" Perloo continued, "because he beat Dogwood, and I think he'll soon be after you, you wimp. What's your name anyway?" Perloo had a nasty habit of saying bad things to the wrong rabbits.  
"Buttercup, and if I were you I'd better start running right.. about.. now." Upon saying this, Buttercup began to charge Perloo, who took off running as fast as he could.  
"Dimwit," said Redwood, "I always knew that habit would catch up to him." The rabbits watched Buttercup chase Perloo into his burrow and then returning to their own after Buttercup threatened him and then returned to the Owsla meating. 


	10. A Journey of Memories

Note: All questions posted up in reviews will be answered on the Authors Note page otherwise known as Chapter 5. Please read and review. Enjoy the longest chapter I have so far on Snowfoot, Flash, Splotch, and Horace. ************************************************************************  
  
Horace, Splotch, and Snowfoot were lazily sitting out on the warm sunny grass and eating every piece of grass they could get to. They hadn't eaten for a couple of days, so they were very hungry. Flash, the leader of the group, had accidentally lost his sense of direction, so the whole group turned out hrair miles away from the warren. Snowfoot said that they should jut give up the search and continue wandering, but the other three said that they should just ask another harmless animal for directions. Flash had seen a couple of hares, so he went up to ask them where the warren was.  
"I wonder how Flash is doing with those hares," Horace said as he stretched himself across the warm grass.  
"Obviously fine," said Splotch tiredly, "Flash will probably get what we want out of those animals, and by the way they almost are like rabbits. Only difference is that they don't sleep underground, and their bigger, of course."  
"You know, my mother told me that there were hares back in my home country," Snowfoot said, "the coyotes and lynxes were constantly after them too." Horace and Splotch had traveled with Snowfoot long enough to know what the two of the most ferocious predators of another area were. Even though Snowfoot had been in the wild for only two days, his mother had always told Snowfoot and his brothers and sisters all about what happened out in the snowy hills of the Yukon as she lay dying. Snowfoot had never forgotten any of it either.  
"I haven't heard much about the hares around here though," said Horace. "Maybe they aren't two friendly to the rabbits around here."  
"Oh hares are always friendly to rabbits," said Snowfoot, "the only way to get one mad at you would be to trick it or attack it."  
"Now why would you want to do that," said Splotch. Splotch was actually right when he said that Flash was getting what they wanted out of the hares.  
"You mean you're actually going to the warren of shining wires?" said the young female hare, rather astounded. "Hares, rabbits, yonas, elil, and even rats avoid that place. Supposedly every animal that goes in there gets killed in a very strange way, pretty scary huh?"  
"No, no," said the older male hare, "The reason all rabbits avoid that place is because it's covered in snares. Foxes and all other elil avoid it because the farmer shoots them if they come in."  
"So you mean that me and my friends have been traveling all along to a first rate death hole?" Flash groaned.  
"Not necessarily," said another female hare as she emerged from a nearby thicket, "I heard from a yona that things are different now."  
"How's it different," said Flash.  
"The reason that the warren is different is that the snares are gone," said the female hare.  
"Okay, why didn't one of you tell me in the first place," said Flash.  
"I had no idea that it changed, but Cauliflower never lies to any animal, so I'd trust her," said the male hare, "anyways, the warren is in that direction," said the hare, motioning east. "Just head in that direction and you'll come to a forest. Go strait through the forest, and you'll most definitely find it."  
"Have you been there?" said Flash eagerly.  
"I've been to the outskirts a couple times," said the male hare, "anyways we'd better get going, I heard there's a homba near by." With that, the three hares left, and Flash headed back to his friends to tell them the news.  
  
Flash thought about what the hares had said as he went back to Horace, Snowfoot, and Splotch. Different thoughts kept on passing through Flash's mind. 'The warren was once a humongous death hole.' 'Why didn't that stupid mouse tell Splotch that.' 'So it somehow changed, I guess we can go there then.' I can't tell Horace and Splotch, they will think of it as unsafe.' 'If it has changed, then I won't tell Splotch, Snowfoot, or Horace about it's origin. Not one of them will want to go.' So Flash decided that he wouldn't tell his friends about the warren's history.  
When Splotch, Horace, and Snowfoot asked him how it went with the hares, Flash told them that he managed to get the directions to the warren out of the hares. So they all headed off to the east to find the warren.  
  
************************************************************************ 2 days later  
  
"Kind of a 'wild' looking forest, huh Splotch," Flash said to his guinea pig companion as they looked at the huge forest they were going to attempt to cross. "I'd say that it'd take a while to get through."  
"I think you're right," said Splotch, "but we're up to it, don't you think, Snowfoot's just about dying to go into it." That was true, Snowfoot always loved venturing into unknown places, playing with death, and just having fun in the face of danger. True, rabbits like Snowfoot almost always died early, but snowshoe rabbits like Snowfoot didn't belong in 'the land of few elil,' as Snowfoot called the England wilderness. "Yes, Snowfoot should try calming down a little bit," said Flash, "but speaking of the forest, we'd better get through it before nightfall. It's almost ni-Frith." So Flash and Splotch ran back to where Horace and Snowfoot were feeding on some grass to tell them that it was time to go.  
  
The minute the travelers entered the forest, they knew that they had a dangerous journey ahead of them. The trees were packed so close together, that Frith could hardly be seen. They could hear the sounds of all types of animals: birds, crickets, small animals, and elil all over the forest. Snowfoot was overjoyed.  
"Wow, we finally get to have an adventure on this whole boring journey," said Snowfoot eagerly as they entered into the forest.  
"What do you call fighting through that pack of cats, a simple patrol," said Splotch. He wasn't in tune to having a 55% chance of death put over his head just by stepping into a forest.  
Snowfoot glared at Splotch. "Just because I don't like running and hiding from danger like a little field mouse doesn't mean that you have to be halfway down my throat about it."  
"Snowfoot, just because we aren't in Alaska doesn't mean that there aren't any dangers out here," said Splotch calmly, not at all offended by Snowfoot's remark. "Besides, how long were you in Alaska for, two days? You probably didn't even see the inside of your burrow before the man put you in the cage and saved your litter's life. This area is your home now like it is with me, Flash, and Horace."  
"My mom told me what all my species of rabbit had to do to stay alive back in my home country," said Snowfoot. "Our elil were a lot bigger, faster, and more vicious then any of the elil out here. And even if this is my home now, all my family generations have had their home out in the other world. I might not be able to fight foxes, but I sure as Frith can fight off all the other elil here."  
Snowfoot and Splotch, a couple yards behind the other two continued bickering and fighting, almost losing sight of their companions who were leading the way a couple times.  
"It's seems that there isn't too much elil life in this forest," said Flash as he sniffed at some of the smells in the forest.  
"I dunno," said Horace, "I think a lot of the animals here are watching us, though." Just then a hedgehog scampered out of a bramble bush and looked curiously at the rabbits. Horace took no time in asking it, "are there any stoats, weasels, or foxes in this forest. We're trying to go through it, but we don't know what predators await us."  
"I don't know," said the yona, "I haven't lived here very long, you see. I know for sure that there aren't any hombil in this forest, but I don't know about stoats and weasels."  
By that time, Splotch and Snowfoot had caught up to them and asked them what they were doing.  
"We're asking this yona here about whether or not there are any dangerous elil in this forest," said Horace, who was the smartest and wisest of the bunch. Flash meanwhile, had gone back to talking with the hedgehog.  
"Okay," Flash said, "but what about other elil?"  
"Other than some kestrels and a couple owls, I haven't seen any dangerous predators that would pose much of a threat to rabbits like yourselves, but like I said, I haven't lived here very long," said the hedgehog, "but my mother has lived here in this forest all her life, she might know if there's any dangers ahead for you. I'll go get her for you." So without even asking the four travelers if they wanted to talk to his mom, the young hedgehog ran to and up a nearby tree to get his mother for them. It wasn't long before he and his mother came out to the rabbits.  
"Wow, a guinea pig," said the female hedgehog when she laid her eyes on Splotch. "I thought you guys only lived in hutches. I never expected to see one of you out here, of all places."  
"Well, I've gone places where many of my kind has never gone before," said Splotch, "anyways, are there any dangerous elil around these parts? Your son told me that there are no hombil in this forest, but he says he's not sure about stoats and weasels."  
"Bramble's right when he says that there aren't any foxes living in this forest. I've seen a couple just passing through, though. There are no weasels either. In all my life I haven't seen any. The ones that you should keep an eye out for are owls, stoats, cats, and kestrels."  
At this, Flash said, "So there's stoats and cats in this forest."  
"Very few," said the female hedgehog, "The only stoats in this forest live primarily in the trees in the middle of the forest, not where we are right now." "It's the same with the cats," she continued, "the cat's that live in here are those that have ran away from farms at young ages and grown up in this forest. They stick around the same places as the stoats." "You aren't traveling to the middle are you?" said the female hedgehog.  
"Yes, we are," said Flash, "we need to travel through this forest in order to get to the warren we're traveling to. How do we get around all the predators there?"  
"There aren't many predators there," said the female hedgehog, "there aren't many elil in this forest, but if they attack you, may Frith be with your souls." With that, the middle aged female hedgehog took off back to the tree she was in."  
"I'll follow close behind you to make sure that nothing attacks you," said Bramble, "but now I need a little bit of sleep." Bramble to took off to a tree and scampered up it to get a little bit of sleep. The four travelers took off again, but this time all but Snowfoot had a heavy heart.  
"Why would Frith be with our souls if a cat or stoat attacked us?" asked Snowfoot to Flash, "we've fought stoats and cats before, and none of them posed much of a threat to us."  
"Maybe there's something different about the ones here," said Flash, "they might hunt in packs or they might be a little bit more vicious then other stoats and cats?"  
"I think you're right when you said that they hunt in packs," said Splotch tiredly.  
The four travelers continued for some time in silence before they reached the center of the forest. Finally, Horace said, "so here's the dreaded center. It doesn't seem like there's too much about. I can't here too much except for a slight breeze. Hold on one second. Where's Snowfoot." The two rabbits and the guinea pig realized that Snowfoot, who was lagging behind, was not with them anymore. They searched for Snowfoot for a while, but he seemed to be long gone.  
"Damn it," said Flash, "it looks like we'll just have to leave him. We can't stay in the same place for very long."  
"I guess you're right," said Horace, "there's no finding him now. I suppose something picked him off. Either that or he just got lost." The three remaining travelers continued on for some time wearily and half- heartedly after the loss of their friend until Splotch suddenly stopped.  
"What the..," Splotch sputtered, "that's not any breeze Horace, that's the sound of many approaching footsteps!" Indeed it was. During their mournful walking, neither Flash, Horace, nor Splotch had picked up the sound of approaching footsteps. By the time Splotch realized that they were being followed, it was all too late to run away.  
"It might just be Bramble," Flash thought to himself, "he said he'd follow close behind us, but this sounds like many footsteps." The whole world turned over, when Flash, Horace, and Splotch were surrounded on all sides by nine stoats, seven male, and two female. Upon a nearby rock stood the largest stoat of the bunch and clearly the leader.  
"Dinner is served," yelled out the lead stoat, "get them boys, it's time for the two rabbits and this rat to die." All of the stoats were either medium sized or large, and the pack of ten could easily take down the pack of three, even with Flash, who had always known how to fight very well. Flash thought that even with the large Snowfoot or Bramble the yona that the chance of survival against the large group of fight hungry stoats was utterly hopeless. All the stoats were about to charge, when all of a sudden a loud yell came from behind a small shrub. "No, it's time or you to die." All three travelers were then shocked to see the large figure of Snowfoot come flying over the bramble bush and landing on the lead stoat from above. From there, Snowfoot proceeded in cuffing, clawing, and biting the lead stoat as fast as he could, leaving the poor stoat little chance to fight back. Flash looked around him and saw Splotch running up to attempt to head butt a stoat that was running to the small boulder to help his leader. He also saw Horace doing the best he could in a futile attempt to fight off three attacking stoats. He was also glad that Snowfoot had found them. Maybe Bramble would also find them and help them fight off the stoat horde. Flash spun around and turned to face his opposition, the remaining stoats, in what was obviously his last battle. 


	11. Thistle's Run Through The Woods

Loud cheering sounds could be heard from Cowslips warren. There was a good reason for it. Thirty-two rabbits were gathered around in a circle and watching the first two graduates of the Owsla training in a vicious practice fight.  
  
Mallow charged his opponent in a successful head bash, but when he went for a cuff, his opponent jumped out of the way. Though Mallow was more powerful than any other rabbit in the Owsla except for Dogwood, Winters Wrath, and Buttercup, Corona was much faster and better at dodging attacks. As the crowd watched, the other two graduates, Pimpernel and Walnut, patrolled the area and made sure that no elil attacked the large crowd. Winters Wrath, Cowslip, and Silverweed were all sitting front of the fight so they didn't have to stand up on both legs to see. Buttercup and Dogwood were circling the fight to make sure that it didn't get out of hand.  
  
Corona leaped out at Mallow, and scratched him twice across the face. He then jumped back away from a vicious cuff by Mallow. Corona circled around Mallow and came in for another quick attack. But this time Mallow was ready. When Corona tried to bite him, Mallow leaped forward and knocked Corona off balance. When Corona lost his speed and stumbled, Mallow body slammed him over and pinned him down. The match suddenly became a power duel, with Mallow kicking, cuffing, and scratching Corona as hard as he could. Corona, unable to free his legs, shook his body from side to side and eventually managed to get both of his back legs free. Corona then planted both of his legs into Mallow's stomach, and sent him flying off of him. By that time, though, Corona was very tired and hurt from the vicious attacks by Mallow when he had him pinned. Mallow came charging in again, but this time, Corona had no strength to jump out of the way. Instead, Corona smacked one of his back legs into Mallow's face in an attempt to stop his charge. It didn't work. Mallow charged right threw the kick and sent Corona flying into the crowd with a hard body slam. Mallow then sprang up into the air in an attempt to land hard on Corona, ultimately winning the fight for himself. Corona knew that Mallow would do this, so he quickly rolled himself up and out of the way just in time, just as Mallow came crashing down. The dive didn't hurt Mallow at all, but the circled around each other for a few seconds until Corona, this time, charged up to Mallow and began to scratch him as hard as he could. Mallow reared back in pain, and attempted two cuffs on Corona, but the fast rabbit dodged both. Mallow then charged Corona to attempt a head butt, but Corona sprang about a foot in the air and jumped clear over Mallow. Corona didn't land all that cleanly, but he didn't expect Mallow to manage to turn around and charge him again in a time span of two seconds. As he turned around, Mallows head butt came full into his face. Corona was sent flying into Cowslip and Silverweed. This time, Corona didn't get up, and Mallow was credited with yet another win.  
  
After Ivy had helped Corona get to his feet, Mallow came up to his long time friend and told him that they had guard duty. The two training graduates then set off to patrol the outskirts of the crowd, making sure that no elil were about.  
  
Back where the crowd was gathered, Walnut and Pimpernel had just started their practice fight. Mallow and Corona, though, were unaware of a large fox watching them through the trees, planning to make a kill at the warren another day.  
  
*********************************************************************** 2 days later  
  
At around the same time Horace, Flash, Splotch, and Snowfoot ran into Bramble the hedgehog, Buttercup was taking some of the Owsla out on a training patrol. With her were Ivy, Thistle, Hawkweed, and Poppy; the four rabbits that still needed to pass training. Hawkweed and Poppy were almost finished with training, but Ivy and Thistle kept on messing up at most things. Patrols in particular were one of those 'things.'  
  
"Come on, Ivy, we haven't been traveling for that long," said Buttercup rather anxiously to Ivy, who was slowing down the rest of the group.  
  
"Yeah, Ivy," sneered Thistle, "are you to fat to run any more than two feet?"  
  
"I would run hrair miles without stopping just to get you back for that," snapped Ivy to Thistle. "I'd also run hrair miles to see you fight off a butterfly." The two rabbits had always been enemies ever since they were very young. It had all started when Ivy started making fun of Thistle for his weak body, and Thistle making fun of Ivy for his fat body.  
  
"Would you two just stop arguing," screamed Buttercup, "I've had enough with you guys long before we've started this patrol. Don't make me tell Winters Wrath to throw you both out of the Owsla."  
  
"Now that I think about it, it doesn't sound like a bad thing," Hawkweed grumbled as he ran up to the front with Buttercup.  
  
"Shut up," snapped Thistle, "just because you're Winters Wrath's mate doesn't mean that you have more power than any of us."  
  
"Well, I sure as Frith have more power than you Thistle," Hawkweed retorted, "Ivy's right when he says that Silverweed was a fool for picking you, hey Buttercup, why did Silverweed choose Ivy and Thistle to be part of our Owsla."  
  
"I don't know," Buttercup said flatly, " but you also asked me the same question about Corona and Pimpernel, and now look, they're two of the smartest and most powerful rabbits in the warren."  
  
"I really wonder how Pimpernel made it so far," said Poppy, "after all, didn't he kill Vervain?"  
  
"That was one of the other rabbits he was traveling with, and if he did, then he is destined to rise up very high in the Owsla. Vervain was no weakling. He took part in the patrols with Winters Wrath, Dogwood, and me," said Buttercup, quickly coming to the defense of her best patroller. "Oh, and by the way the first thing I told you all about patrols is that you can't talk on them because you'll alert the elil. So no more groaning, and no more talking. That means you Ivy."  
  
The rabbits traveled in silence for several more minutes until a loud crash came without warning from a nearby tree. A large weasel landed smack in the middle of the feuding patrol. Buttercup, Ivy, Hawkweed, and Poppy had all scattered when they saw the weasel falling, but Thistle, who was awed by the sight, had been tackled.  
  
Buttercup and the rest of her patrol could only watch as the weasel toyed with poor Thistle like a cat does with a captured mouse right before it kills it. Buttercup knew that when the weasel got bored of toying with Thistle that it would kill the poor rabbit rather quickly. Buttercup had seen the same thing happen to one of her sisters when she was out on an early patrol with Winters Wrath. Buttercup, her remaining brothers and sisters, and Dogwood, Vervain, and Vines yearned to do something, but they were too small and too afraid to stop the weasel from killing her sister very slowly and painfully. Buttercup swore that the same thing wouldn't happen to Thistle.  
  
"Not even fighting, eh rabbit," the weasel laughed horrifically, "I don't blame you, you're dead meat no matter what you do." With that, the weasel bit deeply into both of Thistles left legs. Blood began to poor out, and Thistle squealed in agony.  
  
The weasel wasn't torturing Thistle because he wanted to take out some of his anger on another poor creature. In fact, the weasel was in a good mood after fighting off another weasel to get a female weasel as a mate. The weasel was basically looking for a little fun.  
  
"Oh, those wounds aren't that bad," snarled the weasel. "Oh, let me rephrase it, those wounds aren't as bad as the ones you're going to have." The weasel then scratched Thistle on the cheek, again making the poor creature cry out in agony. The weasel laughed menacingly, but before it could do anything else, it's ears picked up a sound coming from the left. As the weasel turned, he saw Buttercup charging him as fast as she could. Before he could turn to knock his opponent away, Buttercup ran straight into him, and sent him stumbling. Before he could regain his balance, Buttercup jumped on top of the weasel and started kicking and scratching him for all she was worth.  
  
"Thistle, Hawkweed, everyone, run. I'll hold him off," Buttercup screamed at her companions. Thistle, not needing any more persuasion, took off as fast as he could with two bleeding legs, knowing he wouldn't get far. The others were hesitant. "I'm not letting Buttercup die like that," said Poppy loudly to her companions.  
  
"Don't worry," said Ivy, "as soon as he gets Buttercup off of him, he'll just go for Thistle. He's not going to put up with a fighting rabbit when he could get one that goes down without a fight"  
  
"Same goes for Thistle," shrieked Poppy to Ivy. "Hold on, I've got a plan."  
  
Thistle at the moment was stumbling through the trees in the forest. He had not realized how far into it they were. He, like Ivy, knew that the second Buttercup was off of him, the weasel would follow the trail of blood that Thistle was leaving and come after him. Thistle decided that it was best to throw off the weasel by taking twists and turns. He never knew that in doing that that he would go farther from the warren then he ever had in his life.  
  
The weasel had just about finished off Buttercup before she stopped trying to attack him. He was thinking now that he might just settle for this rabbit that was nearly dead rather than going after the injured one that had taken off into the forest.  
  
He was about to make a decision, when Ivy and Hawkweed charged into him from opposite sides. He was not expecting this from the other rabbits with their leader defeated, so he was spun around and fell to the floor. The weasel angrily picked himself up, and went for Ivy, but was tackled by Hawkweed before he could do so. Hawkweed attempted to pin him, but the strong weasel kicked him off of his stomach, and turned to face the charging Ivy. The weasel returned Ivy's charge, and the two slammed into each other. Ivy put a cuff across the weasel's face right before the weasel bit him deeply in the left shoulder. Before making another move on Ivy, the weasel turned to his left, to face a charge from Hawkweed. Hawkweed, who was faster than Ivy, managed to slam his head into the weasel before it could attack. Hawkweed then proceeded to scratch and kick the weasel, before it lashed out at him a tore open a few deep wounds. Ivy, despite his wound, attempted to kick the weasel with his back legs, but the weasel jumped back and the kick missed. While Ivy was still on his front legs, the weasel charged in, and tore up Ivy's stomach partially. Ivy squealed and fell to the ground, unable to attack anymore due to pain. The weasel then spun around and knocked Hawkweed, who had tried to jump on him, a few feet across to the left. The weasel then charged Hawkweed, and bit him deeply in the haunch. Hawkweed struggled around on the floor, but wasn't able to get up. Buttercup, who was badly wounded, tried to get up, but decided against it.  
  
Just as the weasel made its choice in which of the three injured rabbits it wanted, it chose Ivy, a scuffling sound was heard, and Poppy emerged from a bush with Mallow and Pimpernel, the only Owsla members she could find. Poppy had ran as fast as she could back to the warren and had found Mallow and Pimpernel on silflay together and told them to come with her. Meanwhile, Hawkweed and Ivy fought the weasel.  
  
Not wanting another fight, the weasel took off, following the bloody trail left by Thistle.  
  
By the time the weasel left the injured Hawkweed, Buttercup, and Ivy, Thistle had traveled very deep into the forest surrounding the warren. Problem was, he was leaving behind a bloody trail, so all the weasel had to do was follow the blood. Thistle was not only in danger from the weasel, but other elil were soon to find him very soon.  
  
Thistle stifled a groan as he dragged himself through a small gap of trees. It was plain obvious that he was clearly lost and that help would not be coming.  
  
'The least I can do is avoid that weasel,' Thistle thought to himself, remembering the torture treatment that the weasel had tried to put him through.  
  
Though no elil came for a while, Thistle suddenly heard the sound of approaching footsteps. When Thistle turned to see what type of elil would take away his pain, he let out a squeal. It was the same weasel. Going by the small cuts it had on its face, Thistle guessed that Buttercup had put up one hell o a fight. He also knew that when the weasel caught up to him that he would have his mind tortured out of him to amuse away the small pains the weasel had taken to fight off Buttercup, and catch up to him as he ran in the wrong direction.  
  
"I've got you now, you slimy little piece of ooze," the weasel snarled happily, "Come on, I promise not to torture you that much if you don't make this hard for me."  
  
Thistle began to run as fast as he could with his injured legs. He knew that he couldn't out run the weasel in his injured state, but he could try to trick it into losing track of where he was.  
  
Thistle tried every trick in the book that came to his mind. He tried lying on the ground silently to see if the camouflage of his brown coat against the ground would hide him. He tried hiding behind trees and in bushes. He even jumped in a mud puddle to see if he could hide in it. Even though the blood flow from his legs had ceased greatly, some still came out and gave him away every time.  
  
Just as Thistle was about to give up hope, he heard the sounds of a fast rushing river. He ran as fast as he could to the river. The weasel was not far behind him, looking for a good opportunity to jump on him. After a few minutes of slow running and limping, Thistle made it to the river.  
  
The river ran very fast. Thistle thought that there would be no way to cross it or swim in it. He then saw several blocks of wood floating down.  
  
'If I can get on one of those, I might not drown,' thought Thistle. He then saw the weasel rushing him from behind. With a deep breath, Thistle jumped in.  
  
*********  
  
Winters Wrath, Mallow, Corona, and Walnut all followed the trail of blood as fast as they could, hoping that they would be able to find Thistle in time.  
  
The second that Poppy had informed them that Mallow and Pimpernel were with the injured Hawkweed, Ivy, and Buttercup, and that Thistle was running wounded with a weasel hot on his tail; she found Corona and Walnut and taken off immediately. When they came to the site where the battle had taken place, Mallow had left Pimpernel to guard the injured rabbits, and had run off with them.  
  
"I hope we're not to late," Walnut yelled to his companions as he struggled to keep up.  
  
"I think we are," said Corona, "that weasel was moving pretty fast, wasn't it. Anyway, we can spare Thistle more than we can spare others."  
  
"That doesn't mean that we can just let him die a horrible death by the weasels, you moron," Winters Wrath shrieked at Corona as she bounded over a bush, "stop being such a fool and learn the rule that we never leave an injured rabbit, whether we can spare him or not, behind to die a horrible death. All of you got that." Every rabbit in the rescue party agreed.  
  
Winters Wrath and the three others ran as fast as they could, following the bloody trail. For a long time, Winters Wrath had been able to follow something and run fast for a long time. The process was new to the others, and they had trouble keeping up.  
  
Even though one and a half months of training every day from ni-Frith to sundown had helped them become just about regular Owsla soldiers, they still had problems doing things the way Cowslip had once called wrong.  
  
*************  
  
Thistle had just managed to grab the second to last log in the chain of floating logs. He was now getting carried along at a very high speed by the rushing river. The weasel had made the mistake of jumping in after him, and was now struggling to stay above water since he had not managed to grab a log. Thistle knew that a waterfall would soon come, and that was what he was waiting for. Thistle hoped to jump off the log right before he went down the waterfall and land in some soft bush.  
  
The weasel had no idea that Thistle was planning on doing that. He at the moment was doing his best to stay above water and keep an eye on Thistle while at the same time trying to breathe.  
  
The chance finally came when Thistle saw a huge waterfall coming up. Thistle scrabbled a little but farther up the log and pressed his legs against the side. Extending them all at same time, Thistle went flying off the log and into some bramble bushes on the other side of the river. The weasel fell down the waterfall and landed with a sickening thud on the grass and mud below.  
  
As Thistle looked down the slope, he saw the weasel pull itself up and swim across the now calm water to the other side of the bank far below.  
  
"I'll get you back for this, you stupid rabbit, I swear I will," screamed the injured weasel from far below. Then, It took off into the forest.  
  
Thistle just smiled. The water had stopped the blood flow from his legs, and he was glad that he had actually outsmarted another creature.  
  
After a while, Winters Wrath and her patrol came up to him, and together they began their long journey back to the home warren. The journey was made safely, and every rabbit in the warren, including the injured Ivy, Perloo, and the other tormentors that Thistle had in the warren, were all surprised and glad to see Thistle alive and well.  
  
Thistle and Poppy, due to their smart thinking and planning, were graduated from training immediately. As Cowslip wanted, Poppy became the messenger. Only Ivy and Hawkweed were left to pass. Though the Shining Wire warren's future looked bright, dark clouds were soon to come their way. Meanwhile, the story of Horace, Flash, Splotch, and Snowfoot was just beginning.  
  
Note: This story is going to be at least 20 chapters long, so don't think that the end is near any time soon. 


	12. Breaking the Ambush

Back at his home in their hutch, Flash and Splotch had been tormented by a dog. Every day from before ni-Frith till around sundown, the dog spent most of it's time jumping up on the cage wires, trying to dig under the hutch, chewing at the wood door, and just simply barking at them. Even though it would leave sometimes to bark at something else or just mill around the other side of the yard, the chow/spaniel mix terrified the two small animals nearly into insanity.  
  
Eventually, Splotch got used to the loud barking and clawing at the wood, but Flash had always despised it. Flash, in order to keep from insanity, began to 'fight' the dog by cuffing and biting at its front paws or it's nose when it jumped up on the cage. Flash made a game of it, and soon, his fighting skills became about as good as the rabbit Bigwig. His skills continued to improve, and before he was released, Flash's fighting skills were better than those of an Owsla sentry. Twice, Flash had given the dog a scratch or a bite to make it think twice about attacking the cage. Even though it never did, Flash and Splotch both knew that if they ever made it out into the wild that they would have a good chance of fighting off small enemies.  
  
The first elil that Flash and Splotch met out in the wild was an old and sick tomcat that had been driven off of it's farm by the younger cats. The cat hadn't eaten in hrair days, so it was willing to go after the first small creature it met. In this case, it was Splotch and Flash. The cat chased the two terrified animals until it cornered them. It then was attacked by Flash. Flash and the cat fought for a few minutes until the cat decided that it was to old to fight off a fight hungry animal and decided to find it's meal elsewhere. From then on, Flash had the willpower and the courage to fight any elil that cornered him and Splotch, save for foxes, and to never give in to death. With five stoats attacking him, however, things were different.  
  
Splotch could not fight at all. Two stoats were surrounding him, ready to take his life. Splotch was only alive because of one fact. The fact that he was a guinea pig. The two stoats surrounding him were very hesitant to attack him merely because they hadn't seen or even heard of his kind before. They didn't want to flat out attack the guinea pig because they were afraid he might be like a rat, and give them something to remember before he went down. Nevertheless, the stoats were starting to realize that small Splotch was just plain harmless.  
  
Horace kicked out at one of the three attacking stoats before it pinned him down. Horace was horribly injured. "Horace," Flash screamed as he jumped over a stoat and ran to help his friend. Flash kicked the stoat off of Horace before it could put up a fight, but before he knew it, Flash himself wad surrounded as all the stoats started tearing at him. Splotch came charging over, but before he could skull bash one of them, the two stoats surrounding him tackled him and started to kill him. Everything stopped, it seemed, when a sickening thud could be heard from Snowfoot's battle area. The rabbits, the guinea pig, and the stoats all turned to see the lead stoat lying flat on his back, bleeding from many places and not moving at all. They also saw Snowfoot charging powerfully to the battle scene.  
  
"I coming comrades," yelled Snowfoot. The lead stoat had injured Snowfoot a little bit, but the large rabbit could still put up a good fight against the stoats.  
  
"Hold him Feela," screamed the second-in command of the stoat unit, "Keep him back long enough for us to kill off these three." Feela, a female stoat, and the smallest of the stoat unit, turned away from the group and waited Snowfoot's charge.  
  
When Snowfoot was just inches away from slamming Feela with his shoulder, Feela, who was anticipating the charge, jumped two the right, and closed in on Snowfoot's side. Snowfoot kicked her off before she could pin him and then charged her. Feela jumped to the right again, but Snowfoot, who wasn't planning to ram her in the first place, stopped his charge, and smashed Feela with the side of is head. Feela went down, but before she could get up, Snowfoot was on top of her, pinning her, cuffing and kicking her. In less than a minute, Feela lay silently in a small pool of blood. All the while, Horace, Flash, and Splotch had all been taking a beating from the eight stoats. By the time Snowfoot had finished off Feela, all but Flash had log since put up any resistance. All three looked hurt and tired.  
  
With a loud roar, Snowfoot slammed into three of the stoats at the same time. All the stoats turned to face Snowfoot. Seeing his chance, the least injured of the group, Splotch, saw his opportunity, and made his first successful attack. Splotch slammed his head into a stoat, and sent it stumbling. Splotch attempted to scratch open its throat artery, but the stoat blocked his attack, and bit him lightly on the chest. Splotch yelped, and the stoat went in for a more powerful attack. Before it could, however, Flash tripped it and pinned it. Another Stoat came up and knocked Flash off before he could do any damage.  
  
All off a sudden, a stoat went flying into a tree. Another let out a roar of pain. Flash turned to see Bramble the hedgehog slamming every stoat that came near him with his spiny head and his spiny tail.  
  
The second-in-command of the stoat unit tried to bite Bramble, but Bramble turned around and slammed him with his thorny tail. The stoat reared back in pain, and Bramble turned to face a pair of charging stoats. The first stoat jumped on top of Bramble, and tried to role him over, but in the end, all the stoat got was his feet, legs, and belly covered in spikes. The stoat collapsed immediately. The other charging stoat attempted to scratch Bramble's bare stomach, but Bramble head butted him before he could do so. The stoat screamed in pain and ran off into the forest. The second-in- command attacked Bramble again, but before he could reach him, Snowfoot kicked out with his back legs and sent the stoat into a tree. The second-in- command got up and yelled out for each stoat to attack one of their opponents. The battle seamed to have taken a turn for the worst for the stoats, with one stoat running as fast as he could away into the wood and five lying in heaps on the floor. The four remaining stoats were about to attack, when the second-in-command decided that it would be utterly useless.  
  
"Retreat," screamed the second-in-command. As soon as he said this, the four remaining stoats took off into the woods. Upon seeing that Horace was badly injured, Flash ran over to the badly injured rabbit and began to clean his wounds. Meanwhile, Splotch and Snowfoot thanked Bramble for saving their lives.  
  
"Without you, we would have definitely reached our doom," Splotch said rather dramatically.  
  
"All but Snowfoot, that is," said Bramble soothingly, "he could have ran away, none of them would have followed him."  
  
"Snowfoot would never abandon us, would you Snowfoot," joked Splotch.  
  
"Hmm, let me see, if I had ditched, I could live the life of a fighting wanderer, not go to that death-trap of a warren you've been talking about, oh, and of course I wouldn't have gotten all these scratches and bites all over me from fighting the leader and the one called Feela," Snowfoot joked. Upon seeing Splotch's bewildered look, Snowfoot then said, "I was just joking, I would never abandon you guys. Besides, if you hadn't searched for me when I was lost, I wouldn't have caught a whiff of your scent and found you."  
  
"That's all I need to hear," said Splotch.  
  
"Hold on a minute," said Bramble, "you're going to the Warren of Shining Wires, aren't you?"  
  
"If that's what it's called, then yes, we are," said Splotch, "you've heard of it."  
  
"Yes, I have heard of it," said Bramble, "and if you don't already know, it's not a death hole anymore. It's changed."  
  
"We already know," said Snowfoot, "a few hares told as just a couple of days ago."  
  
Splotch and Bramble continued to talk as Snowfoot made his way over to Horace to help him up. As for the downed stoats, one of them had pulled himself up and made off into the forest, but the others remained down.  
  
"Come on, old chap, get up, I know you can," said Snowfoot to Horace. Horace wasn't mortally wounded, but the others would need to help him along in order for him to survive.  
  
"By Frith, just get up Horace," grumbled Flash, "you're not mortally injured, you'll be just fine. Just get up, would you."  
  
"All, right, all right," grumbled Horace. With the help of Snowfoot, Horace got to his feet, and the travelers started preparing to make off into the forest. Just when they were about to leave, however, the lead stoat got up and looked around him. Then he looked straight at Snowfoot.  
  
"If it wasn't for this yona here, you'd all be dead by now. I'll get all of you back for this, I swear I will," the lead stoat snarled. He then turned and strutted off into the forest.  
  
"Oh, I'm so scared," grumbled Snowfoot sarcastically, "I mean, what can he do to us, three of his fighting force are dead, and the rest probably won't fight, even if he offered them the lead job."  
  
"I know," said Flash, "they weren't just defeated, they were pulverized. I can guarantee that if Bramble's with us that we won't see even the luminous glow of their eyes."  
  
All of sudden a voice came from the top of a tree. "Oh, believe me, they'll get you back sometime or another." The whole group looked up to see one of the wild cats that Bramble's mom had told them about.  
  
They stared at it for a few moments before Horace said, "what do you mean by they'll get us back sometime or another. We heard from a reliable source that there weren't many of them. Plus, we completely decimated their fighters"  
  
"It doesn't matter how badly you defeated them, they'll still find a way to get you back," the cat said, "it probably won't be today or tomorrow, but they'll come after you in a few days, don't get me wrong."  
  
"You mean they're actually going to try and fight us openly again," Snowfoot blabbed out, "you can't be serious, if you haven't noticed, three of them are dead. Their leader almost died at the hands of yours truly."  
  
"Great, three of them are dead, just give the stoats all the more reason to find you and kill you," the cat said tiredly. Neither of the rabbits, Splotch, nor Bramble knew whether the cat was trying to help them or not. "Let me tell you something," the cat continued, "these forest stoats are a lot different other wild stoats. For one thing, they live in a colony just like you rabbits do in a warren. The chief stoat is large and vicious, you'd better thank Frith that he didn't come with his Owsla to fight you."  
  
"Wait a second," Horace said, "this doesn't make sense. Stoats don't live in colonies and they don't have Owslas or chiefs. They live on their own, and sometimes they mate. They don't depend on each other for survival."  
  
"These particular stoats do," the cat said, "I have studied these stoats for a long time. And let me tell you something. Every single one of them is a fighter, even the females. What you faced today was not their Owsla. These stoats have lived in this forest for so long that they have nearly forgotten the ways of life of their ancestors. Their "leader" that this big rabbit here almost killed was the only Owsla member of the group. If this big rabbit."  
  
"Snowfoot," Snowfoot interrupted.  
  
"If Snowfoot hadn't surprised him, then he would have fought a lot harder," the cat said, a little bit bothered by Snowfoot's interruption. "And in answer to your question," the cat said to Horace, "there are three tens of stoats living in this forest. There would be a lot more of them if they didn't attack every creature that moved."  
  
"Hold on a second," Flash snapped, "you mean you saw the whole battle take place and you didn't even bother to help us!! We could have been killed. And even a moron would know that these things aren't coming back for a while. You're just trying to mess with our minds."  
  
"For your information I would have helped you if your yona friend hadn't dropped in and joined the fight," the cat snarled, "let me tell you a story about these stoats."  
  
"Go on, go on, we're all listening," Horace said, "we want to be out of this weird forest before nightfall, so make it snappy."  
  
"All, right," the cat muttered, "when I was young and first discovered the stoat clan, a homba came wandering into the forest. It was a young male fox that was ready to fight to the death for its first mate. No animal, not even hedgehogs dared to cross its path. Then, it wandered straight into a stoat ambush. The brilliant thing about the ambush was that stoat scouts were watching the fox's progress and keeping the chief stoat updated with all of the fox's progress. Eventually, an ambush was put together. Like I said, the fox walked straight into the ambush, and before he knew it, hrair stoats came at him from out of the trees and bushes. Before the fox could do anything, the stoats were all over him. Problem was, the stoats had made a mistake. They thought that the homba was just a yearling that had just left its mother, not a fox that was ready to kill anything in its path. Only four members of the Owsla were with the fighting group. Well, I watched the fighting from a tree, and after a few minutes, the fox drove off the stoats. Hrair of the stoats lay dead, including three of the Owsla members, and only several were retreating. The fox, knowing that the stoats would be back with reinforcements, chased after the survivors. He took down two of them on the run and cornered a third that fought him single handedly."  
  
"How did it do," asked Splotch inquisitively.  
  
"How do you think it did," the cat said, "hrair stoats had been killed by that homba at the same time, so how do you think that one stoat would do against it. It died within seconds. Anyway, the fox looked for the three surviving stoats, but when he couldn't find them, he tried to get out of the forest. He was injured, you see, and he couldn't fight another group of hrair stoats. I followed him from the treetops into the forest, and after a while, he fell into an ambush of stoats again, this time it was a larger group of stoats, and those who were in it were better fighters. Well they took the fox down in a couple of minutes, and only two stoats went down with him." Seeing the five listeners looking horrified, the cat said, "you'd better get out of here as soon as possible, I'll show you the way, but you don't know these stoats. They're a lot stronger and more organized than they were when they took down the fox, so watch out, let's go."  
  
"Hold on one second," said Flash, "who are you anyway. Do the cats in here operate the same way as the stoats, or do you keep your normal ways?"  
  
"No, the cats in here don't thrive the same way as the stoats, because most of them once lived on farms. I'm one of the few that was born in here, and I have lived here all my life," said the cat. Then he said, "in case you're wondering, I've never fought the stoats, but I have tracked them and learned their ways of life. I'll tell you my name later. Come on, we must hurry."  
  
On the whole long journey to the end of the forest, the stoats never came out at them. As the cat said, they were most likely trying to formulate a plan. It was nearly nightfall when they reached the edge of the woods. Then the cat said, "here you go, you should get away from the woods and go to sleep out farther in that field. Then you can travel to the warren in the morning. Keep Bramble with you until you head on out, and put up sentries as you sleep. I'll be going back to the forest, we shall meet again." And with that, the veteran cat took off into the forest.  
  
Bramble and Flash led the way to a nice soft place in the field where they could sleep. Snowfoot was going to be the first sentry, followed by Bramble, then Flash, then Splotch and Horace.  
  
"I wonder how those stoats got to be like that?" Splotch wondered aloud as he lay down on the soft ground.  
  
"I guess they're ways of life were forgotten over time," said Bramble as he nursed a coupled scratches on his belly from the fight with the stoats, "my guess is that a couple pregnant stoats got lost in there, and they had their litter. But honestly, I've never heard a thing about those stoats until that cat told me. But I bet my mom knows."  
  
"Not to change the subject, but Bramble, do you think we should just walk up to the warren and ask if we can stay there?" asked Flash, "we've heard from several animals that it was polluted with snares. There might be a chance that there still are snares there. I think we should have asked that cat about it."  
  
"You know," said Bramble, "the warren is free of snares. That I know for sure. My mother told me a lot about that warren. But I don't know how they have been adapting to regular "wild" life. You see, their ways of real life was forgotten, just like those stoats, because the farmer fed them and protected them. I think you should patrol it and take a look at it to see if you like their ways of life first before entering it."  
  
"Good idea," said Flash, "we'll try that. What do you think Splotch?"  
  
"I think it'll work," Splotch replied, "but I think we should keep off the patrolling until we all get over our stoat wounds."  
  
All three animals agreed on that, and before long, the hedgehog, the rabbit, and the guinea pig joined Horace in the world of dreams as Snowfoot kept an eye out for elil. 


	13. Battlegrounds and Old Beginnings

It was a sunny and cloudless summer day up at the Shining Wire warren. Summer had just begun, so the days were very long. Since it was nearing the late sundown time, the rabbits were just coming out on silflay. However, two rabbits had been up since ni-Frith trying to open up a couple of old burrows for a grown up litter of kittens. The two rabbits were Thistle and Hawkweed. Since Hawkweed's haunch was still injured from the fight with the weasel, Thistle was doing most of the digging. The two hard workers had already opened up the first burrow, and the second burrow was coming along just fine. That is, until Perloo and Waterfall showed up to "help" them.  
  
Thistle swore under his breath as a huge mound of dirt came falling on top of him. He then heard laughter from Perloo and Waterfall. "Great Frith, Waterfall, do you have to screw up everything the Owsla tries to do?" snapped Thistle angrily.  
  
"Yes," Waterfall cackled as he shoved another pile of dirt into the burrow on top of Thistle. "You might as well say that it's my "job" in the Owsla."  
  
"Just get out of here, you two," Hawkweed snarled, "I've got to much to do right now, and I don't want any halfwit rabbits getting in the way."  
  
"So now we have to obey your orders," drawled Perloo sarcastically, "I didn't think that you of all rabbits, Hawkweed, could give orders. And for your information, we have just as much power and authority in this warren as much as you do." With that, Perloo shoved what was left of the dirt into the burrow, completely filling it up.  
  
"Once I tell Winters Wrath about this, I swear.." Hawkweed said, but he was cut short when Thistle burst through the dirt that was covering the burrow. He looked angrier than he did when he attacked Pimpernel.  
  
"Oh, is little harmless Thistle mad," taunted Perloo as he had done most of Thistle's life, "is he mad because the big bad Perloo covered his burrow?"  
  
At this, Thistle lost his nerve. With all the force he could muster, Thistle charged Perloo, and tackled him. Thistle then proceeded in cuffing and clawing Perloo as hard as he could. Perloo didn't expect anything like the attack from Thistle, yet he was there, getting beat up by the rabbit that he had always called harmless. Waterfall tried to help his friend, but he got the same treatment as Perloo did. Hawkweed finally stopped the fight when Perloo and Waterfall were rolling around in the grass, groaning in pain. Both the rabbits were bleeding. Thistle had only got a small scratch on his cheek.  
  
Now Hawkweed had enjoyed seeing the two annoying rabbits get the crap kicked out of them, but he knew that Thistle would kill them if no one stopped him.  
  
"That's enough, Thistle," Hawkweed said, putting himself between Thistle and Waterfall, "all you had to do was scare them, not give them the same treatment that you got from that weasel."  
  
"Oh come one," snapped Thistle joyfully, "tell me, just tell me that you didn't enjoy seeing those two little bastards get a near death beating."  
  
"You can be joyful now, but you're not going to be joyful when Winters Wrath finds out about this," snapped Hawkweed, "I wouldn't be surprised if Cowslip expelled you from the warren for this." Already, several rabbits had come to see what all the groaning was about. Every single one of them looked horrified.  
  
"Whatever, Hawkweed," Thistle said lightly as he watched Waterfall pull himself up and half trudge, half drag himself up to Willow and Redwood without even sending a glance at Thistle, "they're fine."  
  
Redwood then came over to help Perloo up. "Who do you think you are, taking out innocent rabbits for no reason, what did they ever do to you?" Redwood snarled.  
  
At this, Hawkweed came to Thistle's defense. "For starters, Waterfall and Perloo just destroyed a burrow that we've spent hrair hours trying to open and fix up," snapped Hawkweed, "and second of all, was it or was it not Perloo that has been tormenting Thistle for what, all of his life. And let me tell you something Redwood, no one cares about these to rabbits, and yourself for that matter, and I sure would be glad if Thistle had gone al the way and killed those two trouble makers. They're a disgrace to our warren."  
  
"What's going on hear," said a familiar voice, "why is there such a crowd here, what's up with you Redwood, what's wrong, Perloo." The voice was Mallow's. "Hawkweed, what just happened here?" asked Mallow upon seeing how battered Perloo was.  
  
"Thistle nearly killed Waterfall and Perloo after they caved in a burrow on him," said Hawkweed tiredly.  
  
"That's all," said Mallow jokingly, "we all knew that was going to happen long ago." Despite being wounded, Perloo threw Mallow a dirty look. The crowd of rabbits began to clear, including Perloo and Waterfall.  
  
"Get back here Perloo, and you to Waterfall," snapped Mallow, "Perloo, this is the twelfth time you've deliberately messed with something the Owsla is doing and screwed it up. One more time, and I think Cowslip will throw you out of the warren. Waterfall, this is your fourth, and I swear, I've had it with both of you, go now."  
  
"How about Thistle," snarled Walnut as he approached, "he had no right to beat up Perloo and Waterfall. I don't care what they did to him."  
  
"Yeah, but we do," grumbled Hawkweed.  
  
"Shut, up," Walnut snarled, "Thistle, I'm getting really tired of the way you've been treating my friends. If you want, we can take this out to the field." "Oh, that'll be a good one," grumbled Mallow, "Thistle, you can add another ass kick to your credit."  
  
"Shut up and get out of here, you stupid outskirter," snarled Walnut.  
  
"Your wish is my command, captain," Mallow said sarcastically. He left Hawkweed, Thistle, and Walnut to bicker with each other as he went to find Winters Wrath. He knew that Walnut would eventually start fighting with Thistle, so someone should be there to break it up. Eventually, Mallow found Dogwood and told him about what happened. As Dogwood walked over to were Thistle and Walnut were now screaming at each other, Mallow went on silflay.  
  
None of the rabbits out on silflay noticed that Mallow was even there. But that didn't trouble the good-natured rabbit, he was long used to it. After eating a couple mouthfuls of grass, Mallow went to his family's burrow, which was the furthest from the center of the warren. It rested about fifty yards away from where the farmer used to leave the rabbits their food. He thought of just going to sleep and getting up when the Owsla meeting at ni- Frith the next day came. That was before Pimpernel dropped into his burrow.  
  
"Want to get something to eat?" asked Pimpernel, "you're not going to sit in your burrow for the rest of the day, are you?"  
  
Mallow was Pimpernel's only friend in the warren. Mallow had literally made it illegal in the warren for any rabbit to make nasty comments at Pimpernels expense. Any rabbit that said something bad about Pimpernel would get a severe punishment.  
  
"Actually, I was," said Mallow tiredly, "but I guess I could use a little bit more to eat." The two rabbits then headed for the outskirts of the warren, where there were many cowslips. Several rabbits were there, munching on the grass and clovers. Three had found a few cowslips, and were about to eat them. Mallow and Pimpernel came up and began to eat grass, next to the three. That's when trouble started brewing.  
  
"You know, you embleer prisoner, one of these days someone's going to kill you," snarled one of the rabbits eating at the cowslips at Pimpernel, clearly unaware of Mallow.  
  
"Yeah," put in the second one, "you're going straight to hell."  
  
"What's that I hear," snarled Mallow, "are some negative rabbits in the need of a beating?" All three of the opposing rabbits took off at once. It wasn't until Mallow and Pimpernel were heading back to the Great Burrow for the daily story that Pimpernel spoke.  
  
"Hey Mallow, why do you stick up for me? I mean, no one else does, and almost all of them are ready to put me down any way possible. So why haven't you joined in the crowd?" "It's because I know how you feel," Mallow replied as they reached the Great Burrow, "I went through the same thing. I lived in a warren that was destroyed, and me and my family had to move out here."  
  
Corona, who was making sure that no fights broke out in the Great Burrow, heard the conversation, and decided to yell out something.  
  
"That sounds interesting, Mallow," yelled out Corona, "why don't you tell all of us about it."  
  
Mallow immediately backed away, but the rabbits protested, and Mallow eventually agreed. Mallow went to the center of the burrow and began to speak. 


	14. Mallow's Secret

"It all started about a year ago," Mallow began, "I lived in a place called the Ashley Warren. It was a very big warren; it had at least three times as many rabbits as we have. Elil, Mange, nor man could bring down this warren. Besides, the men who live around where we did were friendly and never harmed us.  
  
"Anyway," Mallow continued, "I was born with hrair brothers and sisters. Though this seems like a large amount at this warren, it was not uncommon at my old warren. We lived very happily, and we thought that the good times would never end."  
  
"Well, what happened?" asked one young rabbit  
  
"I'll get to that in a second," said Mallow, "anyway, I think the white blindness even came at a time, and it didn't do to much damage. Our chief rabbit was the best anyone could ever hope for. He got the warren through many problems, and it was rumored that he once cured a rabbit of the white blindness.  
  
"Well, when I was a month old, he finally went to Inle," continued Mallow, "he was very old, you see. Our Owsla captain eventually became the chief rabbit. That's when things began to go wrong. Not that he was a bad chief, but the times were getting hard."  
  
"The first thing that happened was that a plague of Fever hit the warren," said Mallow, "and several rabbits died. But the warren bounced back, like it always did, and for 3 weeks, nothing out of the ordinary happened. Then, three hombil started attacking our warren. Rabbit after rabbit went down. At first, our chief didn't do anything, but then he moved into action."  
  
"Our chief was a military genius, you see," said Mallow, "he wasn't big, but he could make up any plan and put it into action. That's how he became the Owsla captain."  
  
"Anyway," continued Mallow, "he led our Owsla in battle, and before we knew it, two of the foxes had been driven off. Foxes can fight well, but they can't kill hrair rabbits attacking them at the same time, you see. The third eventually left on it's own. Just when our warren thought that the hard times were gone, the worst struck.  
  
At seeing all the rabbits gasp in surprise, Mallow continued, "this wasn't any disease or man given plague that took us out, it was nature. A fire came through our warren unexpectedly one day, and burned just about everything. The fire didn't take many of us. I even remember seeing a liter of three four-day-old kittens make it out alive. The problem was that almost all of the burrows were burned away. Our chief ordered the only burrows left to be used for the young kittens that had made it out."  
  
"Well, what happened then?" asked Poppy, "I heard that elil come in hoards if you have no protection." "We got lucky," said Mallow, obviously bothered by his Owsla companion's interruption, "no elil came during the night after the fire. Well, the next day, all the warren rabbits went separate ways. Some went to another large warren called Hare Warren Down. Some took off to live life as nomads. Some stayed behind to rebuild the warren. Others, like me went in search for random warrens."  
  
"So how was the traveling," asked Ivy, "did all the other rabbits who went with you get killed including your brothers and sisters?"  
  
"Most of my siblings left to Hare Warren Down," Mallow said tiredly, "I don't know what happened to the others, they went separate ways, I guess, but me and two of my brothers, one of my sisters, and my marli all made it here without any trouble. When we got here, a rabbit called Strawberry showed us around. It didn't take us very long to find out what was happening at this warren. with the snares and all. When we discovered the secret, my family and I moved out to the far end of the warren, and we've lived there ever since. Strawberry came to see us every once in a while, but he stopped eventually. So I guess that's my story."  
  
Mallow stepped out of the center of the burrow, and went back to his burrow, not even stopping to wait for Pimpernel, Ivy, or any of his other friends. He solemnly hopped across the lonely field to his burrow. Upon reaching it, Mallow sat down and let his mind drift back to his younger days at the Ashley Warren Down.  
  
"Come on Mallow," shrieked Toadflax delightedly, "lets go out and play." Mallow gladly followed his friend out into the large field where they would have mock fights and play around.  
  
"Hey Rocky," Mallow asked another friend, "I bet you can't beat me." Mallow was referring to a fight.  
  
"I bet I can," said the small Rocky. He attacked Mallow, and soon the two were rolling around and cuffing each other. The other rabbits chanted, "fight" in the sheer delight in seeing two rabbits jumping on top of each other in an attempt to win the staged brawl.  
  
Rocky won shortly after the fight began, and Mallow was very disappointed. Heartbroken, to be precise. Despite protests from his friends, Mallow went back to his burrow and slept until the next morning. By then, Mallow had gotten over his grim defeat and was ready to go again.  
  
Mallow suddenly felt sadness hit him. Mallow wasn't sad because he was never able to fight well back at his home warren, beating Corona and Walnut combined six times in a row had disproved that. The good-natured rabbit was sad when he thought of all the god times that he had and could've had. His friend Rocky was one of the few rabbits in Mallow's warren that had been killed by the fire. Mallow also thought that if the warren was around any longer, he would have gotten into the large Ashley Warren Owsla, which was envied by any warren that had heard of it, not this worst class, first of a horrible line small Owsla of a warren that had once been terrorized by snares.  
  
Mallow also wondered how on Earth he was going to explain to his family how he had told half the dreaded warren their secret. His family probably wouldn't mind it that much if he had told Pimpernel, who this one family of rabbits actually liked, or even Mallow's other friends, Ivy, Corona, and Thistle for that matter. But half the warren? His family was going to be pissed. Mallow decided that it would be best if they heard the news while he was out on his all day patrol tomorrow. Mallow decided not to think about that at the moment, so he moved to his corner of the burrow and fell asleep. 


	15. The Observations

Horace ran across the field as fast as he could. He didn't think the fox would follow. Horace and Splotch were digging a burrow big enough for the four of them, when a huge fox attacked them. Splotch was small enough to hide in the burrow, but Horace had had to run in order to escape the creature. Horace ran straight into Snowfoot.  
  
"What's going on," said Snowfoot, "why are you running, aren't you supposed to be digging that burrow. where's Splotch?"  
  
"A fox attacked us," spewed out Horace, "Splotch managed to hide in the burrow, but I had to run for it."  
  
"We'd better go check on Splotch then," grumbled Snowfoot, "this fox couldn't have been that large. Most smart foxes don't attack their prey in the middle of an open field, you know, it makes for an easy escape. Oh, and their might be a man waiting for it also."  
  
"This one was definitely not small," said Horace as he and Snowfoot took off to the burrow, "it was huge. All of its legs were trimmed with muscles, and you should have seen the way it attacked. We didn't even know it was coming until it practically was on top of us."  
  
Just then, the two rabbits reached the burrow. Splotch immediately popped out of it. "Good, that darn homba is gone," said Splotch tiredly. "Snowfoot, you should have seen that thing. It was about as big as one of those coyotes that you always complain about."  
  
"I don't think too many things out here could be that big," said Snowfoot, "Splotch, Horace, you two get back to work on the burrow. I'll keep an eye out for that fox. I don't know where Flash is."  
  
As Horace and Splotch dug the burrow, Flash was checking out the warren of Shining Wires. From a bush, Flash had a good view of the warren.  
  
It didn't seem bad. Rabbits were hopping around everywhere, talking to each other, and going in and out of burrows.  
  
'It doesn't look bad,' thought Flash to himself, 'it doesn't look like any rabbit has gotten caught in a snare for a while.'  
  
Flash decided to look for some of the Owsla members. At first, he couldn't find any. Then, as he looked very closely, Flash saw a couple rabbits opening up a burrow. 'That's the Owsla's job isn't it,' thought Flash, 'but those two don't seem to be very big.'  
  
"Oh, well," said Flash to himself. He ran off to the burrow that Horace and Splotch were digging. Flash really wondered where Snowfoot was. Snowfoot had told him at the beginning of the day that he would be scouting around for any signs of elil. The stoats in particular.  
  
Bramble had gone back to the forest the day before, but he said that he would be back soon. Flash hoped that the cat would come back also. Though the cat had not told the gang his name, he had been a big help to them.  
  
All of Flash's thoughts were pushed out of his head, as Splotch came running up to him and told him about the fox attack.  
  
"Are you alright," asked Flash eagerly, "how about Horace, is he all right?"  
  
"Everyone's fine," answered Splotch calmly, "interesting homba though, it just snuck up to us, and we didn't even notice it. After Horace ran away, it looked down the hole at me for a minute, and then it just walked away. It didn't try to attack us, or anything."  
  
"That's strange, I don't know why it did that, but you actually managed to hide in the burrow. It's not very big, is it?" asked Flash.  
  
"No it's not," said Snowfoot, "but it was big enough for Splotch to hide in. Since the fox might be back soon, I think Splotch and Horace should spend the next few hours trying to make it big enough for the four of us. Flash, you and me can go check out the warren."  
  
Flash agreed, but Splotch and Horace were reluctant to do any more digging. "Why do we have to do more digging," groaned Horace, "we've been at it all day, and it's past ni-Frith, we're tired and we need a little bit of sleep."  
  
"Horace, just do the digging," said Flash, "we need someone to dig us a reasonable burrow, or else one of us is bound to get killed by something."  
  
"But still, why do you get to go see the warren," said Splotch, "me and Horace haven't done a single exciting thing since this whole trip began, and now we have to dig your burrow as if we're your slaves! I mean is anyone getting how stupid this is."  
  
"That's enough," shouted Snowfoot angrily, "you guys are doing the digging because you're the only ones out of our little group who can dig. And you are not our slaves. Keep in mind that Flash and I have saved your behinds every two days on this journey. Horace, if it weren't for us, you wouldn't have survived a single day out in the wilderness. And Splotch, remember how Flash saved your life when we got attacked by our little stoat friends. You have a lot to thank us for, and maybe if you get this burrow dug, we can have something to thank you for."  
  
Neither Splotch nor Horace made a rebuttal to this speech, and they got to work on the burrow automatically. They were both grumbling different things, but 'at least they're doing the burrow work,' thought Snowfoot to himself as he took off with Flash.  
  
"Did you by any chance see any signs of those snares that Bramble talked about," asked Snowfoot.  
  
"No, I didn't," Flash replied, "they seemed exactly like normal rabbits when I looked at them. Only problem was that I didn't any Owsla activity at all. A couple rabbits were excavating a burrow, but they didn't seem like the type of rabbits to be in the Owsla."  
  
"How so," asked Snowfoot?  
  
"Well, I saw two of them doing the job. One of them was very small, and the other seemed to be injured."  
  
"He could have been injured in some Owsla activity."  
  
"Maybe, but it might be that he just got into a mating fight."  
  
Snowfoot didn't say anything more. Snowfoot thought that he'd have to go see the warren for himself and see how good and organized it was. Snowfoot personally wanted to keep up life as a wanderer, but since his three friends didn't want to, he decided that he'd just stick it out with them for a while.  
  
"Here we are," said Flash to Snowfoot, interrupting his thoughts, "what do you think, kind of small isn't it?"  
  
As Flash and Snowfoot quietly observed the warren, Horace and Splotch dug a burrow. Both of the burrow diggers were pretty angry about having to do the task of digging the burrow.  
  
"Why do we have to do this," moaned Splotch as he unearthed a piece of dirt, "I don't get why Snowfoot and Flash get to have all the fun."  
  
"Well they're right about one thing," muttered Horace tiredly.  
  
"What's that?"  
  
"Well they're right about just about everything they said," said Horace, "we do need them. Without Snowfoot, you and me would have fallen to those stoats a lot sooner, even with Flash. Flash and Snowfoot have also saved our lives hrair more times against stoats, weasels, and cats. I never thought that it was possible for two rabbits to fight that well."  
  
"Come on, Horace, why are you always so morbid and ready to give in," snapped Splotch, "they may have saved our lives a lot of times, but we've helped out a lot too."  
  
Horace had gotten back to the digging. Splotch didn't think that he would answer, but then he said, "no, you've helped them out a lot of times. Splotch, you've got great tracking skills. You led them to the stoat forest, and you found that pond that we swam across to get away from a fox. I haven't done anything good except for not getting in the way."  
  
"Not necessarily, Horace," replied Splotch, "the reason you didn't do anything is because you're not a journeying type of rabbit. You no more about man then I ever thought possible. Well, that does come from growing up in a man burrow, doesn't it, but you're still not stupid. I, for one, actually like having you around."  
  
"Thanks," replied Horace, "now lets get this burrow dug so we can actually sleep without sentries tonight."  
  
Horace and Splotch dug at the burrow for another couple hours until Snowfoot and Flash came back. They appeared to be arguing over something.  
  
"You told me that that rabbit was just a weakling, but did you see him beat up the other two," said Snowfoot gleefully.  
  
"If I knew he was going to kill those other two, then I wouldn't have bet on him," grumbled Flash as they came upon the burrow.  
  
"What'd you bet on?" asked Splotch as they approached.  
  
"Flash bet me the full night of sentry duty on a rabbit fight at that warren," said Snowfoot, "a rabbit took on two attackers and beat them. Very easily, in fact."  
  
"Have you gotten the burrow dug yet," groaned Flash, who was not very eager to spend the whole night, which would come in about one hour, doing sentry duty, "how's the burrow coming?"  
  
"It's big enough for Snowfoot and Splotch," said Horace, "or it's big enough me and Flash, but not all four of us."  
  
"If two of us lay in the entrance, we could fit in it," said Splotch, "but that wouldn't be very safe."  
  
"Wake me up when I have to start sentry duty," said Flash. The strong rabbit then disappeared into the small burrow."  
  
"I'll sleep out here," said Snowfoot, "it gets to hot in the burrow. The warren seems fine, so we'll move out there in a couple weeks. Flash and I will help you out with the burrow tomorrow."  
  
Everything would go fine in the next two weeks four the weary travelers, but they had no idea what the Warren of Shining Wires would bring. 


	16. Starting The Fire

"Corona, what are you doing," screamed Buttercup at Corona, who was snoozing in his burrow.  
  
"What do you mean, what am I doing," snapped Corona, "can't I just get a little sleep for once!"  
  
"No, you can't," said Buttercup angrily, "Corona, you were supposed to meet Ivy, Mallow, and Thistle an hour ago for a patrol, and they're not really that happy right now with you. They've been waiting out in the sun while you've been sleeping in. Get going."  
  
"All right, all right, I'm going," growled Corona as he jumped out of his burrow and ran to meet his friends. Corona hadn't been having a great time since he became an official in the Owsla. Sure, it was fun being a corporal and being higher than most of the Owsla rabbits, but the Owsla never let him sleep in, or have a long silflay, or even just relax for a while. He was getting really tired of it.  
  
As it turned out, Ivy and Thistle were rather angry about having to wait, but Mallow didn't really care at all. He knew how Corona felt. This particular patrol was the first one in which neither Winters Wrath, Buttercup, or Dogwood went on.  
  
"Come on Ivy, pick up your fat body and move," Thistle yelled out to Ivy, who was rather far behind.  
  
"Shut up, Thistle, stop being so mean," said Mallow calmly, "just because you managed to escape a weasel and nearly kill Waterfall and Perloo doesn't mean that you can go prancing through your life, giving other rabbits the same treatment that you got. This Owsla doesn't work that way."  
  
"Yeah, Thistle," said Corona, "remember that Ivy managed to get away once that weasel got to you. He actually moved and you didn't. Here he comes right now, and I think he's going to get you back for making that comment."  
  
Thistle didn't respond to the comment, but just said, "any sign of elil Mallow. Corona. Because I don't see anything. I think we can move on now. Let's just wait for Ivy to catch up."  
  
"Yes, that's the spirit," said Corona loudly, "niceness, that's the key, but I think we should look for hraka or tracks. Mallow, check under that bush, Thistle, you check behind that tree over there, and I'll check in this little clearing."  
  
"Why do I have to check under the bush," complained Mallow jokingly, "I'm a corporal to, remember that Corona?"  
  
"All right, Thistle since you're smaller, you check the bush, Mallow, you check behind the tree, and I'll stick to my job," said Corona.  
  
"You know, I wasn't being serious," said Mallow, but Corona didn't hear him, and the three were checking for any smell, dropping, or track of any elil when a panting Ivy dashed up to them.  
  
"Catch your breath Ivy," said Mallow, "we'll be done in a second. There's no need for you to do anything right now."  
  
"All right," said Ivy as he sat down on the ground to catch his breath, glad that he was actually able to rest for a few seconds.  
  
"You know, Thistle's right," said Corona as he searched the ground, "you really do need to start getting into shape. We can't have you falling hrair yards behind on every patrol. That makes you an easy target for elil."  
  
"All clear under this bush," said Thistle at he came out from under it, "how's the tree look, Mallow?"  
  
"It's all clear behind this cedar," said Mallow, "Corona, how does the clearing look?"  
  
"Uh, you guys better come have a look at this," said Corona, "we're going to have to report this." As Ivy, Thistle, and Mallow came up to Corona, they saw what he was talking about. The minute they came up into the clearing, they caught the strong smell of fox. Several large fox tracks also went through the clearing.  
  
"I take it that this homba was very big," said Ivy quietly.  
  
"I've never seen them this big," said Mallow, "in, fact these are huge, how old are they?"  
  
"They look about a day old," said Corona, "Thistle, can you head back to the warren and report this, since you're the fastest one here. You know the way, right?" Thistle nodded and ran off in an instant.  
  
"Mallow, Ivy, we'd better leave and get on with this patrol," said Corona, "it gives me the creeps just looking at these tracks." Ivy and Mallow nodded.  
  
Even Ivy managed to keep up with the group this time. But Mallow, Corona and Ivy were scared out of their minds. As they went on through their patrol, they found more and more signs of the fox. These signs all were less than a day old. Mallow once came upon the tracks of a stoat. But this stoat's tracks were leading away from the warren.  
  
Ivy eventually came upon the tracks of a different fox. Corona decided to follow them. It was not very long until they reached what they least expected. The tracks led to a scene where a battle had taken place. Then, they found the smaller fox lying dead on the ground. The huge fox they were following had killed it.  
  
"Mallow," said Corona quietly as they stared at the dead fox, "go back to the home warren and alert Cowslip-rah about this. Make sure you tell him to keep a very close eye out for this fox. You got that?"  
  
"All right," said Mallow quietly, he had never heard of a fox killing another fox over what appeared to be nothing. This was no mating fight. The dead fox had been mauled and half eaten.  
  
"Mallow, please try to hurry," said Corona, "this is urgent."  
  
Mallow nodded and took off as fast as he could. He wasn't running as fast as his legs would carry him just to sound the alarm, but because he expected the fox to be on his tail at any moment. All Mallow wanted to do at the moment was reach the safety and warmth of his burrow.  
  
Corona and Ivy continued on the patrol in silence. They barely tracked for signs of elil anymore. They knew that it would probably point to the fox. Corona called off the patrol about three fourths of the way through the patrol. Thy wanted to head home as fast as possible and be far away from the fox as they possibly could. They didn't know that they were farther away from it then anyone else in the warren.  
  
************************************************************************  
  
Thistle ran as fast as he could into his home warren. He ran right past several rabbits, including Perloo and his little gang. He ran strait to Cowslip's burrow. Inside, Dogwood, Silverweed, and Cowslip were al talking about something when Thistle came flying in.  
  
"Thistle, is something wrong," asked Dogwood worriedly.  
  
"Not yet, there isn't," replied Thistle, "but I think there will be soon."  
  
"How so," asked Silverweed intently, "did Corona send you back to bring us the news of something you spotted?"  
  
"Actually, he did," said Thistle, now regaining his breath, "where's Winters Wrath?"  
  
"She's out on a garden raid with Buttercup, Hawkweed, and Pimpernel," said Dogwood, "she'll be back by nightfall, I'm in charge of the Owsla until she comes back. Is there something you want to tell me?"  
  
"Yes," said Thistle, "something distinctly horrible."  
  
"What," said Cowslip, "does this thing by any chance trouble my warren?"  
  
"It might," said Thistle, "Corona spotted the tracks of a fox on a close patrol of our warren. But these weren't the tracks of an ordinary homba. These tracks were a little bit bigger. Apparently this homba was pretty large, and I think it was at our warren outskirts a couple days ago."  
  
"That doesn't seem to be too bad," said Cowslip, "but we might need to put the warren on alert for a couple days just in case. Dogwood, it's your call."  
  
"I think we should," said Dogwood, "Thistle, do you mind fetching me Poppy, I think she's in her burrow getting a little rest."  
  
Thistle nodded and took off. Dogwood then turned to Silverweed and said, "I don't think it's that big of a deal, but our rabbits might need to know about this."  
  
"Maybe," said Cowslip, "but it's an interesting topic for a story, a homba bigger than any other, Silverweed, maybe you could put together something like that for your story tonight."  
  
"I already picked a story, but good idea," said Silverweed. He paused for a couple seconds, and then said, "but the warren really does need to know about this. The fox might not present any problems for us now, but it might later on, we might need to send out more patrols."  
  
"Silverweed, we only have thirteen patrol ready rabbits as it is," said Dogwood, "and the one's we do have are getting really lazy and tired from lack of sleep. I think we should give them some afternoons off."  
  
Silverweed was about to reply, when Thistle returned to the burrow with Poppy, who still looked tired.  
  
"What do you want me to do, sir," said Poppy to Dogwood.  
  
"Get word of a second degree alert out to all the rabbits in the warren," said Dogwood, "Corona is coming back from the patrol he's on now, so when he comes back, have him help you." Poppy nodded and took off.  
  
Walnut, Perloo, Waterfall, Redwood, and Willow all lay out on the sunny grass and ate the clovers. They were all talking abut various things when Thistle came charging past them and ran across the field. He eventually disappeared into Cowslip's burrow.  
  
"I wonder what Thistle has on his mind right now," wondered Willow out loud.  
  
"Who knows," grumbled Perloo, "hopefully Corona, Ivy, and Mallow all died on that patrol, I can't stand any of them."  
  
At this, Redwood laughed. "Is there anyone here in this warren that you do like," said Redwood, "because it seems like you can't stand anyone except for us"  
  
"You know," said Waterfall, completely changing the subject, "I wish I could have been born in that warren that Mallow once lived in, it seemed so nice."  
  
"Why would you want to live in a place where Mallow came from," said Perloo, "that warren is probably another word for hell."  
  
"I don't why you don't like Mallow, Perloo," said Waterfall, "he hasn't done anything to you. But anyway, that warren seemed so nice."  
  
"Yeah, and any warren that can survive the white blindness and drive off a fox must be great," said Walnut. All the rabbits agreed, and went back to eating clovers when a stinking smell suddenly filled the air.  
  
"What the hell is that," said Redwood, "whatever it is, it smells horrible."  
  
"I know," said Perloo, "Walnut, what is that smell, I know that you learned about these things in the Owsla."  
  
Waterfall pulled himself to his feet and said, "it smells like something's decaying, Walnut, please tell us that it's not dangerous."  
  
Walnut, like Waterfall, had gotten to his feet, and started sniffing at the smell. For a few seconds, he had no idea what the smell came from, but then suddenly realization dawned on him.  
  
"Homba," screamed Walnut as loud as he possibly could. The fox was there instantly, and it was huge. Before Walnut had even turned to run, the fox was already springing into the air and diving at Waterfall, Redwood, Perloo, Willow, and himself.  
  
Before the fox could land on them, Walnut managed to take off as fast as he could, with Waterfall close behind. Before the others could even make it fully to their feet, the fox landed, and a loud squealing could be heard. The fox had gotten either Perloo, Willow, or Redwood. Walnut didn't know which one had met his fate. Walnut didn't even think of stopping to help his friend that had perished. Walnut probably knew that he was already dead. All Walnut could think of was getting away from the horrible fox.  
  
Walnut and Waterfall dashed into the first burrow they could find, and lay on the ground and panted not so much with tiredness, but with terror. After a minute, Waterfall said, "I wonder who died, I think Perloo did."  
  
Walnut didn't answer. He was to busy panting and trying to get the message that one of his childhood friends was actually dead into his head. Waterfall and Walnut lay on the ground of another rabbit's burrow for a long time after that.  
  
Two minutes after the attack, Dogwoods loud call came out, "all rabbits to their burrows, all rabbits to their burrows immediately. Danger is abroad. Danger is abroad."  
  
Mallow came dashing through the trees just in time to hear a high- pitched squealing, and see the huge fox that he, Corona, and Ivy were tracking make a kill. Mallow came to a complete stop. The fox, while holding a dead rabbit in his mouth, turned and looked Mallow strait in the eye. Since the fox had made a kill, Mallow thought he was safe. But before the rabbit knew it, the fox turned and charged him.  
  
Mallow was already tired from his long run from the area of the killed fox to the warren. As Mallow turned and ran to his burrow, he knew that he probably wouldn't make it. His burrow was 50 yards away, and the fox looked like it could outrun a hrududu.  
  
Nevertheless, Mallow let out a high-pitched squeal and bolted as the fox charged him. For around ten bounds, Mallow wanted to run in a strait line to his burrow, but he knew that the fox would catch him that way. He started bounding in different directions, crisscrossing, and doing all kinds of little rabbit tricks, but the fox knew where he was heading, and ran not so much after Mallow, but to his burrow. So Mallow ran in a strait line again.  
  
Mallow looked behind him when he covered half the distance, and saw that the fox was only about three and one half yards behind him. So Mallow just bowed his head and ran all out, at every second expecting the fox to drop onto him.  
  
But apparently Mallow was running faster than he thought. The fox was barely gaining on him. With five yards to go however, the fox boosted up and came within less than a foot of Mallow. The fox prepared to spring. Mallow let out a squeal and sprung the same second the fox did, and just escaped the fox's claws. The fox sprang again within a yard of the burrow, and so did Mallow.  
  
Mallow sprang high in the air, and flew the yard strait into his burrow. He dropped five inches into the burrow before he hit the side of the entrance, and went cartwheeling down the next foot of the entrance and landed in a heap on the main burrow floor. Mallow lay back and panted for a minute before he picked himself up and looked around. His mother, sister, and his two brothers were all staring at him. Mallow ignored them and climbed out into the entrance of the burrow. The fox glared at him for a moment before it walked away. The fox had dropped the dead rabbit it was caring. When the fox picked it up again, Mallow managed to see who it was.  
  
It was Redwood. Mallow thought for a moment, 'damn, I wish it had gotten Perloo,' before he realized something.  
  
Redwood hadn't done anything wrong. He had just been relaxing on the ground, eating clovers, and living the life of a normal rabbit when the fox had dropped down and robbed him of his future years.  
  
Mallow also thought that Willow and Perloo were also injured. After all, the fox had dropped on them to; Redwood had just gotten the fox's teeth on his neck by chance. If Perloo and Willow were injured and knew that the danger was still in the warren, than they were probably dragging themselves off to the nearest burrow in search of safety.  
  
But if they think that the danger is gone, and they are just lying out on the grass and retrieving their strength, thought Mallow, then they are dead meat. 


	17. The Enemy's Eyes

Red Rage carried his rabbit kill deep into the forest before he began to eat. He wasn't very hungry. After eating a whole family of two adult and four baby stoats just the day before, not to mention partially eating a fox opponent, Red Rage didn't really have to eat for a while. But here he was, chewing at the rabbit caracaras, not really enjoying the normal sweet taste that came from rabbit meat.  
  
Red Rage admired himself greatly. With his huge size and unimaginably strong body, Red Rage was one of the most powerful foxes in all of Europe. All of his prey, not to mention all stoats, weasels, foxes, and even hounds feared him. He wandered the land here and there, making a kill whenever he was hungry.  
  
But now the huge fox had a couple reasons to stay in one place. He had found a warren in which he could easily find food. Red Rage couldn't believe how stupid the rabbits in the warren were. When he came approached, Red Rage hadn't even expected to make a kill. He just wanted to get a good view of the warren. But then he saw how dumb the rabbits were. Five of them were all stretched out the grass, as if they had Prince Rainbow protecting them. They had obviously smelled him, Red Rage had a strong scent, which he thought was very sweet, but they seemed to have no idea what the hell the smell of fox was. Not until he was four yards from the obviously stupid rabbits did one of them recognize the smell and sounded the alarm. But by then, it was too late for one of the five rabbits to face their doom. Only two of them managed to avoid the fox's leap. As the tremendous fox killed one of them and injured the two others, one rabbit emerged from the trees. Red Rage chased it to its hole, out of amusement, obviously, with only a small intent of killing it, but with the fox only inches behind him, the rabbit made a lucky leap of faith and landed in its burrow. But Red Rage never really liked killing animals more than three times in the same area, even if they were stupid.  
  
Red Rage stopped chewing on the rabbit and stretched himself out on the grass. He decided not to think about the warren anymore. As far as he was concerned, it was ancient history. The fox was about to go to sleep when another reason Red Rage was confined to this area stepped out of the trees.  
  
"You're not going to eat all of that, are you," snapped Rouge, Red Rage's mate, "because I've got some hungry cubs that need some food."  
  
"Does it look like I'm eating it," Red Rage shot back, "and are those cubs always hungry? It seems that I have to hunt for them every day."  
  
"Yes, they are always hungry," snarled Rouge, "that's because they're growing. You don't want to grow up weak and slow, do you?"  
  
"All, right, All, right, I'll give them the bloody rabbit," snapped Red Rage, "it's not like it was a hard kill anyway." The two foxes began to walk to where the cubs were hidden.  
  
"Wait a second," said Rouge, "rabbits aren't stupid. They know when your coming because of your scent. You usually have to chase them. This one doesn't look like it has any injuries. How come it didn't run?"  
  
Just then, they reached to cubs. All five of them came out if the den and played about Red Rages feet before he dropped the rabbit in the midst of them. He watched the hungry cubs tear at the carcass for a minute before he said, "none of them ran. It was as if they didn't know the scent of fox."  
  
"What do you mean by none of them," said Rouge, "was there more than one dumb rabbit?"  
  
"There were five," said Red Rage. Rouge stared at him for a second before he continued. "I was just checking out the place, not hunting. I wanted to see if I could find a way to block a rabbit from its burrow, you know, I was planning to kill one of them another day. But then I saw these five rabbits all sprawled out on the grass. I thought that it might be fun to scare them, so I just walked up to them. They obviously smelled me, because I saw them sniffing the air, but they didn't run. They obviously didn't know what a fox smells like. Finally, one of them recognized it and screamed out 'homba' but by that time, it was to late for them to run away. Seeing that the cubs might be hungry, I jumped on them. Two actually managed to get away, but I caught this one and wounded the others."  
  
Rouge stood silent for a minute. Then she said, "interesting. I've barely ever heard of anything like it. Rabbits not knowing the smell of fox. Actually, now that I think about it, that's unheard of. I mean, we're their main enemies."  
  
"I know that," said Red Rage, "but these rabbits might be different."  
  
"Different, different," said Rouge, "you don't get it. Us foxes kill more rabbits than stoats, owls, badgers, and whatever creature you can think of except for man combined. Either you have a different smell, or those rabbits are just plain stupid."  
  
"I'm going to go with the second part," said Red Rage, "every other animal I run into knows my smell and takes off as fast they can."  
  
"Hmmm, now that I think about it, these rabbits sound very familiar," said Rouge, "I think they remind me a lot of one group of rabbits I've heard of before."  
  
"Well, whatever," said Red Rage, "they were more or less like hutch rabbits. They had no idea what my smell was. Do you think it might be a warren of escaped hutch rabbits?"  
  
"Hold on," said Rouge, "I know what this warren is. It' the warren of Shining Wires, Cowslip's warren, they call it."  
  
Rouge began to think out loud, saying different things about the warren. Red Rage finally heard enough and said, "Woe, Woe, Woe, back up the lecture a little bit and please tell me what the hell the Shining Wire Warren is."  
  
Rouge gave her mate an angry look; she was getting very tired of Red Rage's ignorance and loud, obnoxious interruptions. Couldn't he see that she was trying to think? She didn't care that Red Rage was one of the most powerful foxes in the land. As far as she was concerned, he had to learn not to be so rude.  
  
At seeing Rouge's angry look, Red Rage backed off and said, "All right, I'm listening, tell me about this place."  
  
"Well, it was once a rather large warren many years ago," said Rouge, hoping that her mate wouldn't interrupt her again, "then the plague of the White Blindness hit, and about three fourths of the warren died. The survivors were soon taken under the wing of a farmer, who would feed them and kill their enemies."  
  
"Wait a second, there's a catch to this, isn't there," said Red Rage, "most men wouldn't just take a warren under their wing for no reason."  
  
"Actually, there is," said Rouge, "the farmer would snare the rabbits every once in a while. He wouldn't snare to many of them. Just enough so that the warren wouldn't be destroyed."  
  
"Stupid rabbits," grumbled Red Rage, "what happened later?"  
  
"Well, eventually after all the feeding and protection the man gave them, they eventually abandoned their waves of life," continued Rouge, "and then the babies that were born learned that the way they were living was the right way of life. It was kind of sad actually. Almost all of them were disobeying the laws of nature, and they didn't know it."  
  
"Wait," said Red Rage, "what do you mean by almost all of them?"  
  
"There was this one female rabbit that went by the name of Winters Wrath," said Rouge, "she somehow knew that the way the warren lived was wrong, and she didn't want to get snared. She had a little band of rebels, as you might call them, that patrolled the land and learned about the ways of regular rabbit life."  
  
"What happened to her," asked Red Rage, "and how do you know all of this?"  
  
"You see," said Rouge, "I once stalked the little band, and I overheard a conversation that they were having. I waited until it was over before I attacked them. Problem was, they were very smart. They smelled me before I attacked them. Right before I could spring, they all took off in various directions. I tried finding them again, but they knew I was after them, and they managed to hide from me. I learned a lot about them and their purpose by asking several stoats and foxes that knew a little bit about them."  
  
"About the first part," said Red Rage.  
  
"Well, as you can expect from a young gang of wandering rabbits, most of them died one way or another. But several did survive the patrols, including Winters Wrath, and eventually the warren changed," said Rouge. Before Red Rage could ask, she said, "something happened to the farmer, and the snares eventually disappeared."  
  
"Interesting," said Red Rage, "so that's why they didn't run, they have absolutely no idea what a fox smells like."  
  
"Exactly," said Rouge, "and just in case you're wondering, it got the name Cowslip's warren from their bozo ruler who is now the chief rabbit. I think Winters Wrath is the captain of their new Owsla."  
  
Red Rage was about to speak, when one of the cubs came up to Red Rage. It was Albi, Red Rages favorite cub. Albi was a rare albino fox, and Red Rage hoped that he would live the life that he was.  
  
As Red Rage played with Albi, Rouge said, "to make things a little easier on you, I think we should use that warren as our new watering hole."  
  
"What do you mean?" said Red Rage.  
  
"I think that we should make all the kills that we need for ourselves and our cubs at that warren for a while," said Rouge, "it will make thing a lot easier on you."  
  
Red Rage agreed. He played with Albi until the cub went back to the burrow to sleep. Red Rage took a walk when the cub left. He went to the foot of a hill and stared at the surroundings. He sighed. He knew that the warren would probably be wiped out if he killed just about a rabbit a day there. Killing at one particular place many times wasn't his style. He liked running out in the wild and picking off different animals from different areas. Not killing off stupid animals one at a time at the same place. This wasn't the challenge that Red Rage liked. But Red Rage cared for his family. 


	18. Surrounded

Dogwood was so tired that he could barely stand up. He, Buttercup, and Winters Wrath had been spending a lot of time trying to find out about the fox. It had been a week and a half since the first attack, and since then, the fox had taken eight more rabbits. Dogwood had spent a ton of time patrolling with Poppy, Pimpernel, Corona, Thistle, and Mallow to find out where the fox was at all times, while Buttercup and Winters Wrath led the rest in an attempt to put down the rising rebel forces that wanted to overthrow Cowslip. The fox was sending the warren into total chaos, and Dogwood didn't like it at all. He was glad that he had a couple hours of sleep ahead of him. When he lay down in his burrow, he fell asleep immediately.  
  
Dogwood was awoken with a start by someone shaking him. "What is it," Dogwood said angrily, "it's not time to get up yet, is it?"  
  
"Yes, it is," said Pimpernel, "it's day break, you've been asleep for four hours. It's time to start patrolling again. Come on, we're all waiting for you."  
  
"Who's that, is that you Pimpernel," groaned Dogwood, "what are you doing in my burrow. You're definitely not allowed in here."  
  
"It's not like I had a choice," snarled Pimpernel, "everyone out there thought that it would be nice and funny if I went in to wake you up."  
  
"Are they all out there," said Dogwood, ignoring the remark "is everyone out there?"  
  
"Everyone except for Mallow," said Pimpernel, "he's helping out Buttercup and Winters Wrath today."  
  
"Okay, that's all I need to know," said Dogwood, "tell them that I'll be out in a minute. Now get out of here." Pimpernel took off out of the burrow in a flash. Dogwood walked out of his burrow and went to his patrol. He told them that they should eat something before they left. He himself went out to the middle of the field, and began to eat hungrily. After a few minutes, Dogwood rounded up his patrol again and headed off.  
  
During the patrol, the rabbits walked in some kind of straight line. Corona was up in front, checking to see if he saw the fox, Dogwood and Pimpernel followed to check for any kind of droppings or tracks, and Poppy and Thistle stayed behind to try to catch the fox's scent.  
  
"So far, so good," said Pimpernel wearily as he trudged up a small hill.  
  
"Shut up," snapped Dogwood, "if our little foxy woxy hears us talking, then one of us is done for."  
  
"Not to break the rule, but I think I've got its smell," said Thistle from behind the patrol, "come on over and smell it for yourself."  
  
The whole patrol gathered around where Thistle was, and they could smell the scent of Red Rage very slightly. All the rabbits stood still for a second before Poppy said, "it's nothing to worry about, you can barely smell it."  
  
"How is it nothing to worry about," asked Dogwood, "Winters Wrath told us to report any sight or smell of the fox. I think that this qualifies as smell."  
  
"She's got a point though," said Corona, "this thing has a very strong scent, and here you can barely smell it. It probably was here a few days ago, or more, because there's no tracks around this area. I caught the smell of it a little farther up our route also."  
  
"Yeah, Corona's right," said Pimpernel, "we've got a lot of ground to cover today, so we'd better get going."  
  
Dogwood nodded, and the patrol took of again. Over the next hour, the rabbits caught the slight smell of the fox in some places, but there wasn't much danger.  
  
All of a sudden, a stoat fell out of a tree on top of Pimpernel. He squealed as the stoat went for his neck, but Dogwood kicked it off of Pimpernel, and the whole patrol closed in on it and drove it off.  
  
"That was close," said Pimpernel, "thanks for the help."  
  
Dogwood and the others just nodded, and continued on as always. Nothing else happened, and in another hour, they finished the first of three routes. An hour later, they had completed the second, this time with no sign of the fox at all. It wasn't until they were halfway through the third route that the scent of Red Rage could really be smelled.  
  
"Wow, the smell's really strong around these parts," said Poppy to Thistle, "maybe we should tell Dogwood."  
  
"He probably already knows that we're smelling the fox," said Thistle, "the smell isn't as slight as it was on the first route."  
  
"Umm, not to trouble you all, but I think we have a problem," said Corona from up at the front. The four other rabbits raced to were Corona was, and saw what he was talking about. Around twenty yards in front of him was the fox that they were tracking. Though it wasn't moving very fast, it appeared to be heading towards the warren.  
  
"At least it hasn't noticed us yet," Dogwood whispered out loud, not sure who would answer him.  
  
"It will pretty soon," said Corona, "it seems to have a good sense of smell. We need to think of a plan fast."  
  
"I know one," said Thistle, "run for our lives."  
  
"No, we're not doing that," said Corona, "it'll hear us the second we take off, and it's faster than us, remember."  
  
"Yeah, he's right," said Dogwood, "I think that four of us should move silently away from it while the fifth heads back to the warren."  
  
"That's not a bad idea, but when we head to the warren, we pass right in front of it. It'll probably smell whoever goes," said Pimpernel, "we should circle around it, so it won't catch our smell."  
  
The fox suddenly started sniffing the air. Dogwood said, "that'll take to long. It'll have made it to the warren and made a kill before we even get there. It's probably smelled us already. Let's go with the first plan. Corona, head to the warren, we'll meet you later. Go NOW."  
  
And just like that, Corona began heading back to the warren, and Dogwood and the rest of the patrol began to move away from the fox. Corona went at a slow pace so that the fox wouldn't be alerted. But Red Rage had smelled rabbit, so he sniffed the air. He caught the smell coming from the direction Corona was traveling him. With a bound, Red Rage rushed to Corona. As Red Rage ran, he stepped on some brush, which made a loud crash.  
  
The second Corona heard the loud crash, he knew the fox was after him. Without making a sound, Corona ran as fast as he possibly could, dodging through trees, and going under bushes. It all appeared to be working. The fox seemed to be falling behind. As Corona dove under and out of a bush, he realized that the fox noticed it also. The fox ran faster, and it began gaining on Corona.  
  
Corona was a very fast rabbit, and he was one of the fastest rabbits in the warren. Though rabbits such as fellow Owsla member Poppy were faster, Corona had an innate talent for being able to get around and put obstacles in the way of pursuers. Unfortunately, Corona was trying to get away from a fox that had the same talents.  
  
'Dear Frith, I'm in for it now,' thought Corona to himself as he dodged a tree, 'if I had known this thing was so fast, then I wouldn't have agreed to this plan.' Corona entered a small clearing and ran as fast as he could straight across it. He entered the other side of the clearing through a bush, making a loud crash. Within three seconds, an ominous crash from the same bush told him that Red Rage was right behind. Corona suddenly realized that he was nearer to the warren than he thought. He just had another 400 yards to go. Unfortunately, Red Rage was right behind him. The large fox was also gaining on him.  
  
Corona managed to throw Red Rage of a little bit by jumping over a small fern, and then dodging an oak tree, but Red Rage got back on track and copied Corona's every move and eventually began gaining on him.  
  
Corona suddenly found that he was less than fifteen yards away from the warren. He then put his head down and ran as fast as he could through the trees and onto the silflay field.  
  
"FOX," screamed Corona, "FOX alert. Get to your burrows immediately. IMMEDIATELY." The rabbits out on the field wasted no time in running towards their burrows. In less than ten seconds, the field was clear.  
  
Corona smiled as he headed towards the burrows. He knew that he had done his job right and that he would be rewarded. He knew that Red Rage was right behind him even though he hadn't heard the crash of brush. He ran as fast as he could towards the burrows. He was no more than four yards away from the burrows, when a dark shadow suddenly appeared over Corona. Red Rage had sprung in a last effort to catch the running rabbit.  
  
The shadow frightened Corona, and he stopped abruptly as the fox sailed overhead. Corona tried to run around the fox after it sailed over him, but Red Rage recovered from the missed spring immediately and blocked Corona's route to the burrows. Corona ran to the left and to right, hoping to trick the fox, but Red Rage matched him every move.  
  
Corona knew that his situation didn't look good. The only escape path was back to the wood, and Corona knew that the fox would catch him if he ran there. Suddenly, Corona had an idea. He took two steps backwards, and the fox didn't move at all. Red Rage clearly expected Corona to take off back to the wood. Suddenly Corona charged forward. Corona then sprang in the air as high as he possibly could. Red Rage, who wasn't expecting that, attempted to jump up and catch Corona in mid air, but he had waited to long. Corona sailed over the fox, and landed firmly. Within an instant, he was in a burrow. He had escaped Red Rage.  
  
Corona happily stared up at the three rabbits that were already in the burrow. All of a sudden, Red Rage stuck his head into the entrance and said to Corona, "you were lucky." Then, the vicious fox was gone. 


	19. The Two Sides Meet

The second they heard the crash of the fox, Dogwood and the rest of the patrol had run off and circled around the forest and then came back to the warren, not sure what they'd find. What they found was the warren hiding in their burrows, and the fox nowhere to be found. Corona had made it. Now, the next day, Dogwood had to lead his patrol out again.  
  
Mallow and Ivy were coming on the patrol that day to take the place of Poppy, who had a small foot injury, and Pimpernel, who was helping out Winters Wrath. Everyone kept on congratulating Corona on his incredible accomplishment of outrunning the fox. He was named a hero in the middle of the Great Burrow that night.  
  
"Pick up the pace, Ivy," screamed Thistle at the fat rabbit that was lagging behind, "you don't want to get eaten, do you?"  
  
Ivy ran faster, and eventually caught up to the rest of the patrol. They had just started on their first route, and there had been no sign of the fox.  
  
"Thistle, be quiet," hissed Dogwood angrily, "you're the one that's going to alert the fox if you keep screaming."  
  
"Well excuse me for not wanting to see our fat friend get killed," snarled Thistle, "why are we taking him anyway?"  
  
"If you want him to build up more endurance, and be able to move faster, than you want to send him on a lot of high exercise patrols," said Mallow, "and Thistle, I don't think you'd mind if Ivy got killed."  
  
At that moment, Ivy rushed up to them. "Why do you guys have to move so fast," said Ivy, "oh, and I think I smelled the fox back there."  
  
That caught Dogwood's attention, so the whole patrol circled around and went back to the place Ivy had pointed out. Sure enough, the scent of fox could be smelled. The rabbits stood silently around in a circle for a minute. The smell was fresh. Corona was the first to speak.  
  
"Yeah, it's fox, but it's not the one particular homba we're supposed to be tracking."  
  
"How do you know?" asked Dogwood.  
  
"That fox has a very distinct smell, different from most," said Corona, "this smell isn't very strong, and it seems to be heading away from the warren."  
  
Dogwood reluctantly agreed, and the patrol lumbered on. Corona's suspicions were confirmed when Thistle spotted the tracks of a fox. The tracks were smaller, and they appeared to be heading away from the warren.  
  
Dogwood didn't send anyone back to the warren to report the new tracks, and the patrol continued on as it had done before.  
  
Dogwood ran up a small hill and down again, following Corona. He jumped over a rock and went through a hedge. Dodging behind different trees while on the move, Dogwood caught the sight of what he was looking for. Fox tracks, big ones. Dogwood called for Corona to stop and the patrol gathered around to look at the tracks. They looked very old.  
  
The patrol was about to start again, when Thistle said, "guys, I've just caught the smell of weasel. It's very strong also." Mallow was about to tell him something, when a large weasel suddenly appeared in front of Corona.  
  
The weasel looked straight at Thistle and said, "I told you I'd get you back. Now you don't even stand a chance." Thistle squealed. It was the same weasel that he had outsmarted a while back. Without warning, four more weasels came out of the surrounding trees and flew at the patrol. The large weasel, obviously the leader, smiled.  
  
************************************************************************  
  
"Come on, Horace, that thing is right behind us," yelled Flash. The four animals were running from the fox that had attacked Horace and Splotch at the burrow.  
  
"I'm going as fast as I can," screamed Horace as he bounded after Splotch, Flash, and Snowfoot.  
  
"No, you're not, I'm even going faster than you," said Splotch, "hurry up, we have to outrun the homba, it's blocked our route to our burrow."  
  
Snowfoot, with his large legs, bounded in front of the other three and was closely followed by Splotch, who was tiring himself out on his short little legs. Despite their quick pace, the fox was still catching up to them. Horace meanwhile, had quickened his pace and caught up to Flash.  
  
"Can you see the homba behind us?" Horace asked Flash. The four travelers had reached the forest and were now dodging back and forth behind trees. Flash stole a quick glance behind him.  
  
"No, I can't," said Flash, "but keep in mind that we're in the woods, so we don't have much vision. But I can smell it very strongly, and I can hear its footsteps. Can't you." Horace nodded. His smell and hearing wasn't as good as Flash's, Snowfoot's, or Splotch's.  
  
Splotch, who was up close to Snowfoot, suddenly heard a squealing sound. He knew automatically that it came from a rabbit in distress. In spite of himself, Splotch turned away from the direction that Snowfoot was heading in and ran towards where the loud squealing came from. He heard it come again and again. Splotch charged to the sound, and he came upon a small decline. He saw what was happening. Without warning, he charged into the battle that was going on.  
  
The weasel laughed as his four buddies flew at the patrol. The rabbits just stood in the middle, to shocked to move. Finally, Corona broke the little mood.  
  
"What are you waiting for, attack them," screamed Corona. Corona then leaned back on his hind legs and charged the lead weasel that was on top of the hill. As soon as Corona charged, the rest of the patrol sprung into action. But it was to late. The weasels had already reached them and began tearing them apart.  
  
The lead weasel just stared on as Corona charged him. Then, without warning, he flung himself at the charging rabbit in full force and the two collided hard. Corona, being the lighter of the two, was thrown backwards. When Corona landed on the floor, the weasel charged him. But Corona knew what the weasel was about to do, so he flipped himself up, and narrowly dodged the huge weasel. Upon missing the rabbit, the weasel came to a halt and was about to turn around, when Corona flew on top of the vicious beast and began to cuff him as hard as he could in the back of the neck. The weasel; angrily flung off the rabbit and jumped on him. The weasel attempted to pin Corona, but before he could, but Corona stretched up and bit the weasel on the shoulder hard enough to draw blood. The weasel howled out in pain and rage, but before it could do anything, the fast and well- trained rabbit attacked the weasel and clawed its face. After that, Corona slashed the weasel on the nose and then tackled the weasel and got under it and flipped it onto its back. Corona then pinned the weasel and began to cuff it.  
  
By the time the weasel threw Corona off, his face was scratched in various places, and he looked like he wasn't doing so well. As Corona made another advance, the weasel retreated a few steps. Though it didn't seem possible, Corona seemed to have the advantage.  
  
The other rabbits weren't nearly doing as well as Corona. Mallow and Dogwood were doing fine, but Ivy and Thistle were taking a whole lot of hits, and frequently needed help. In order to help the two needy rabbits, Mallow and Dogwood's progress in their fight was slowed down, and they were getting hit a lot also.  
  
Ivy was in a bad shape. He had been hit a bunch of times by his weasel opponent, and he now was trying to pick himself up from the ground after the weasel had flipped him, despite his weight. Mallow had driven the weasel back a few yards, and Ivy willed himself to his feet, telling himself that he had fought a weasel before, and that this wasn't much different.  
  
Once on his feet, Ivy saw his opponent slowly coming back. Ivy decided not to charge, as he had done the past several times after the weasel was driven back, since he had only landed a cuff on the weasel since the fight began. He decided to wait for the weasel to attack.  
  
Once he saw that the fat rabbit wasn't attacking, the weasel rushed Ivy. If Corona or Mallow were in Ivy's place, they would have easily dodged the attack, but since Ivy was so large had trouble making quick moves, the weasel hit him hard, but Ivy didn't get thrown back. The pair racked each other with cuffs, slashes, and bites all while they were within a foot of each other. As the weasel scratched him hard on the shoulder, Ivy reached forward and bit the weasel's ear, biting strait through it. When the weasel hesitated in pain, Ivy slammed it with his shoulder, and proceeded in cuffing it. When the weasel regained it's strength, Ivy kicked it with one of his back legs as it charged him. Despite the hard boot in the face, the weasel continued its charge, and it slammed Ivy with his head. Now, Ivy was slowed down in pain, and the weasel attacked him at full force, getting Ivy to retreat. Ivy retreated a couple yards with the weasel always attacking him, when he suddenly stopped and the two met in full force and attacked each other.  
  
Ivy actually managed to drive back the weasel, a first for him, but he had taken the worst of the last attack, and he was now very badly wounded, not to mention that he was overwhelmed by tiredness. When the weasel made another drive at him, Ivy could barely defend himself, and staggered about, on the verge of collapse, cuffing out at the weasel whenever he got the chance. Mallow, sensing that his friend wouldn't hold out much longer kicked the weasel he was fighting and charged the weasel attacking Ivy, driving it off into the forest within minutes. When the weasel was gone, Mallow returned to Ivy's side, Ivy had collapsed, and Mallow urged him to keep up the fight.  
  
"The weasel will be back again, old chap, but you got him pretty bad," said Mallow, "just get to your feet, and get back your breath before you attack that weasel again."  
  
At that moment, the weasel that Mallow was fighting charged him, but Mallow dodged the seemingly desperate attack and sent the weasel flying with a kick from his back leg.  
  
Mallow was about to attack it, when Ivy said, "I need water, I'm thirsty as hell here Mallow, and I won't last much longer if I don't get something to drink." Then, Ivy passed out.  
  
Mallow solemnly looked at his passed out friend, and faced his weasel opponent. The weasel formed a more coordinated charge, one that Mallow couldn't dodge. Despite that, Mallow had a plane. Right when the weasel was about to hit him, Mallow thrust his head forward and smashed the weasel's jaw. The weasel had had his jaw broken, but he still continued to fight. Mallow took a hard beating from the weasel, before the pain of the broken jaw stopped it's attacks. When that happened, Mallow wasted no time in pinning it and jamming his teeth into its throat artery. With one final yell of pain, the weasel died. Mallow had gotten his first kill.  
  
"Good job," said Dogwood as he drove off the weasel he was fighting again, "now get the other one."  
  
Mallow turned and saw the weasel that was once fighting Ivy returning on a charge. Mallow turned to face it.  
  
After the first few defeats, the lead weasel had gained its bearings and placed heavy damage on Corona. Corona was beginning to realize that the only advantage that he held against the weasel was his speed, which he had used well enough to do some damage to the weasel. At hearing an anguished yell, the weasel stopped fighting and turned to see one of his group lying dead on the ground. The weasel swore under his breath just as Corona closed in. The weasel, who had been distracted, was hit hard by Corona, and forced to retreat for the third time.  
  
As the weasel retreated, the rabbit saw a chance to get away and gather reinforcements to fight this gang of weasels. However, Corona knew that his patrol would be dead before he got back, just the one weasel he was fighting was very powerful. Even though one weasel was dead, Ivy was out of commission, and Thistle looked like he would be also. As the weasel advanced, Corona retreated back to where the rest of his comrades were fighting.  
  
Corona suddenly had a plan. He yelled out for Mallow, and soon the two rabbits were charging back up the hill towards the advancing weasel. With a thud, the two rabbits slammed the large weasel with a team consisted head butt. The weasel dropped back a few paces and then attacked the two rabbits s well as he could. Problem was, Mallow and Corona were nothing at all like Ivy and Hawkweed. The two rabbits were both ranked and two of the best fighters in the Owsla, even rivaling the well trained Dogwood and Buttercup. The weasel was getting pounded with cuffs and bites, but all of a sudden, a squeal could be heard.  
  
Dogwood and Thistle had been left to fight three weasels, all of them in rage from the sudden death of their friend. The weasels knocked Thistle to the floor, and one tore him apart, while the other two held off Dogwood with ease. The weasel could have killed Thistle right then, but he appeared to be just be trying to hurt the rabbit bad enough so he wouldn't be able to run away.  
  
Thistle screamed as the weasel tore into his flesh, and Dogwood called out to Corona and Mallow for help. Corona came charging down the hill and kicked the weasel off of Thistle, who was now horribly injured. Mallow was left alone to fight the leader.  
  
Dogwood was double teamed and getting a beating from the two weasels he was trying to fight. Thistle was useless due to his injuries, Corona had his paws full with the weasel he was fighting, which was almost as fast as he was, Ivy was passed out, and Mallow was pinned down by the lead weasel.  
  
Corona tried to rush up the hill to rescue his friend, but the weasel he was fighting got in front of him and drove him back with a barrage of scratches and cuffs. Soon enough, Corona drove off the weasel with a heavy bite to the cheek, but by then it was all to late. Mallow had been reduced to the same state as Ivy. The poor rabbit lay passed out on the floor. The large weasel, who wasn't concerned with Mallow, walked forward, to where Dogwood, Corona, and Thistle stood in circle as the three other weasels circled around them.  
  
"I told you that I'd kill you one day," said the weasel to Thistle, "now, you're going to get the worst torture treatment that I have ever given any sorryass animal."  
  
Thistle quivered in fright as the weasel walked forward. Dogwood thought that they were all dead, and that there was no escape. That idea, however, didn't get into Corona's mind.  
  
"Maybe when hell freezes over," said Corona as he stepped in front of Thistle.  
  
"If you get in the way again, I'll kill you so quickly that you won't even know what happened," snarled the weasel, "you saw what I did to that other rabbit. Guys, kill this one right now, and I'll let you eat him and the others." The other weasels quickly moved in. Thistle let out a squeal.  
  
Dogwood and Corona aimed to charge the lead weasel in a last desperate effort to win the fight, when all of a sudden, a small creature charged down the small hill, and slammed one of the advancing weasels with his shoulder. The weasel fell, not so much from force, but from surprise. Then the little creature charge the lead weasel and head butted him also. The lead weasel stepped back a step, just as the creature scratched him across the face. Then the lead weasel slammed the small creature and sent it stumbling and eventually it fell on the ground.  
  
When the creature looked up from the ground, Dogwood got a good look at it. It was a little smaller than Poppy, who was a very small rabbit, and it looked somewhat like a rat. Dogwood had no idea what it was.  
  
"You really think that you can stop me, you... you, what the hell are you?" said the weasel. The weasel paused for a moment and said, "it doesn't matter, you're about to be dead."  
  
Just as the weasel began to advance forward, a voice came from the top of the incline. "Yeah, right," said the voice, "you're the one who's going to die." Just then, a medium sized rabbit stepped into view.  
  
Corona at once saw that there was something strange about the rabbit. Its legs were trimmed with muscles, and it was in perfect shape. The rabbit had a few battle scars throughout his body.  
  
"It's time to take some weasels down, right guys," said Flash, "guys...guys, where are you?" Just then, Flash heard Horace's voice.  
  
"Criss cross, criss cross," yelled Horace as the fox charge after him and Snowfoot. Horace and Snowfoot ran towards each other and split in the form of an X just as the fox sprang. Horace and Snowfoot had just crossed paths, when the fox landed in the center. Horace and Snowfoot were already on the run, crossing paths every few paces. With an angry snort, the fox took off after them.  
  
Knowing that he had barely any help, Flash said, "it looks like it's just me then," and charged the lead weasel.  
  
"Attack the others," shouted one of the other weasels, and the three others all set upon Dogwood, Corona, and Thistle.  
  
"Escape," yelled Corona, and then he jumped right over the pack of weasels, and took off into the forest. Dogwood plowed right threw the pack, and Thistle followed, hoping that he could escape before the pack had time to regroup. He wasn't successful in his escape attempt. The three weasels had known in advance that Thistle was the one that their leader wanted, so they all closed in upon him and added more wounds to those that Thistle already had. By the time the weasels stopped biting Thistle, the small rabbit was in about as bad shape as Ivy. Thistle barely remained conscious.  
  
By then, Ivy had woken up from his daze, and he looked around at the carnage taking place. He decided to play dead, and take his chances on the ground rather than trying to run away.  
  
The other three weasels decided to eat one of the rabbits while their boss killed off the newcomers, but they abandoned this idea when they realized that their leader needed help.  
  
Together, Flash and Splotch scratched and bit the weasel. The weasel fought back, but the two still took him on, forcing him to retreat for a few steps. Flash then told Splotch to look after the injured rabbits while he finished off the fight.  
  
Flash drove the weasel back a few steps with a barrage of cuffs and scratches. When the weasel lashed out at him with his paw, Flash dodged the attack and closed in on the weasel, and bit it hard on the shoulder. The weasel returned the attack by biting Flash, and Flash let go. Flash then slashed the weasel across the face and got it to stop biting him also. The two animals then charged each other, but Flash ducked the weasel's lunge and flipped him onto his back and pinned him. As Flash cuffed the hell out of him, the weasel attempted to throw Flash, but the rabbit's pin was to good to get out of. Flash attempted to finish off the fight right then, but then he saw the other three weasels charging him. Flash had forgot about them.  
  
Flash bit the weasel in the stomach, and got off of him, and turned to face his aggressors. The lead weasel had to wait few minutes to regain his breath and recover from the pain before he started to fight again.  
  
The three other weasels closed in on Flash, and all bit him and scratched him at once. Flash screamed, but then he sent one flying with a kick from his back legs, and closed in on one of the others. Before the other weasel could attack him from behind, Flash jumped onto his front legs and sent the weasel tumbling with a double kick. Flash then attacked the other, who had tried to bite him in the neck, and drove him all the way back to the edge of the clearing. The weasel, fearing death, turned and ran off into the forest, not coming back this time.  
  
Flash smiled, and then turned to face another weasel that was charging him. At the last possible second, Flash ducked down, and the weasel tripped over him. Flash then jumped on to p of the weasel, and pinned it, and reduced it to the state of Mallow with a few hard hits. The last of the four followers turned to run, but Flash chased it down in a few paces, and caught up to the weasel, and pounced on its back. Flash the bit the weasels neck, killing it instantly.  
  
As Flash walked back to the battle scene, the lead weasel got up and faced Flash. "You ruined my revenge attempt on that stupid rabbit, you mangy animal, I'll get you back some time."  
  
As the weasel turned to leave, Flash said, "no, you won't," and rushed the weasel. Then, the real battle began. It only lasted several minutes, however. Flash did some hard damage to the weasel while barely taking any himself. The weasel just stood, staring at Flash, not moving. Then Flash saw his chance. With a quick charge and spring, Flash flung himself into the air and spun into a barrel roll before hitting the weasel with a perfect head butt. The hard attack shattered the weasel's skull, and put Thistle out of any further torture from it.  
  
Flash, though he executed the attack perfectly, was dazed, and for a few minutes sat down on his back legs and panted. He became fully aware of his surroundings when Snowfoot and Horace appeared on the scene.  
  
"Wow, this must have been some battle," said Snowfoot as he looked around, "to bad I couldn't have helped."  
  
"We lost the fox deep in the woods," said Horace, "it headed in another direction, so we won't see it again for a while."  
  
"Good," said Flash, "help me get these wounded rabbits to the burrow. Splotch, are they all alive?"  
  
"Yeah," replied the guinea pig, "two of them are badly hurt." Thistle had eventually passed out.  
  
Ivy then got up. "Who are you?" barked Snowfoot.  
  
"I'm Ivy of the Shining Wire Warren Owsla," replied Ivy, "my patrol and I were ambushed by weasels out here, and you guys saved our lives."  
  
"Yeah, I guess we did," said Flash, "Splotch and I fought the weasels while Snowfoot and Horace led the fox away."  
  
"Can you walk," asked Horace, "because if you can, I think that you can make it back to our burrow. I wouldn't go over to your warren for a while, since you're wounded."  
  
"Yeah, I can walk, but barely," said Ivy, "but I don't know how you'll carry Mallow and Thistle."  
  
"So that's what there names are," said Horace, "I've got an idea, Snowfoot, you carry the bigger rabbit to our burrow on your back, and I'll carry the small one on mine. Flash, you and Splotch can keep watch. Ivy, walk in the center."  
  
The four other rabbits and the guinea pig agreed, and soon they set off. Snowfoot was carrying Mallow, Horace was carrying Thistle, and Splotch and Flash were scanning the woods for any type of elil. Ivy slowly limped in the middle of the group. The two groups, the fearless wanderers, and the once brainwashed warren had finally met.  
  
Author's Note: How'd you like the chapter; please Read and Review. Anyway, I'll give you something extra, since it'll be a while before I update again. Here's a little list of the Shining Wire Warren Owsla, and a piece of an upcoming chapter.  
  
Captain= Winters Wrath Kills- 5 Attacks made-18  
  
Lieutenants= Dogwood, Buttercup Kills-0 Attacks made-19  
  
Corporals= Corona, Mallow Kills-1 Attacks made-21  
  
Messenger= Poppy Kills-0 Attacks made-1  
  
Advisor= Silverweed Kills-0 Attacks made-0  
  
The Rest= Walnut, Hawkweed, Pimpernel, Ivy, Thistle Kills-0 Attacks made-14  
  
Okay, here's a piece of an upcoming chapter. Note, all of the kills but the one's made by Winters Wrath are in the story. Enjoy! ************************************************************************  
  
Mitsy glanced to her left and then to her right just as Red Rage spotted her. As she looked for any type of help, she caught site of Corona and Ivy, but the two Owsla members were to scared to do anything. Not like they could. Red Rage was too big and too powerful.  
  
Mitsy let out squeal of fright as Red Rage began to advance, and she caught site of the well-known newcomer Horace charging forward, trying to think of a plan. Then, Red Rage charged. Mitsy turned and ran as fast as she could through the field and into the forest. Running as fast as she could, Mitsy glanced back at the snickering Red Rage who put on a burst of speed to end the young rabbit's final run. 


	20. The Aftermath

Ivy wearily poked his head out of the hole that he had spent the past five days lying in. Even though he was over a year old, Ivy felt as if he was a few week old youngster looking outside of his burrow for the first time.  
  
After looking around for a few moments, Ivy pulled himself out of the burrow and hopped over to a small patch of grass. He began to eat hungrily, but a voice stopped him.  
  
"So you're finally out of that burrow," said Flash, "at least you're going to survive."  
  
"What do you mean by at least I'm going to survive?" asked Ivy, thinking back to the horrible battle that had occurred six days ago.  
  
"Well, we're not sure if Thistle and that other fellow are going to survive," said Flash rather sadly, "Thistle looks pretty good, and he's been out a couple of times, but he might have caught an infection."  
  
"So Mallow hasn't even come out at all?"  
  
"So that's his name. No, he hasn't even gotten up. He's so weak that he can barely eat anything."  
  
Ivy gasped. Just the thought that his longtime friend Mallow would probably die almost put a bullet in him. "He was fighting the lead weasel alone."  
  
"That explains it," said Flash, "that thing put up one hell of a fight after you and your two other Owsla members fell."  
  
"Did you kill it?" Ivy asked hopefully.  
  
"Yeah, I got him wit a fantastic head butt. You should have seen it. I literally spun around I the air and sent that weasel to hell. I even heard his skull crack."  
  
"That explains the scar," Ivy said flatly, "you just did that a few minutes too late."  
  
"Look, take it easy," said Flash, "I know that your friend will probably die, but these things happen. The Owsla goes through extra and even dangerous extents to protect the warren. Their chances of death are very high. Mallow here might be just one of the many that perishes in the fight to save the others."  
  
"Yeah, but when he could've been saved-"  
  
"Keep in mind that we weren't even planning to help you. My buds and me were just trying to save our own skins from a fox, not trying to save someone else. If Splotch hadn't decided to put his own life on the line to check out where your squeals were coming from, then we'd have never found you, and all three of you would've been dead. You should be thanking me every time you see me for the rest of your life."  
  
Ivy just nodded. He knew Flash was right. He was lucky that he and Thistle were still alive and getting better, even though Thistle might still die.  
  
"Keep in mind that Mallow still might not die," said Flash, "he is still alive."  
  
"Of course he is," said Thistle as he pulled himself out of the hole, "what's your point."  
  
"Flash here thinks that Mallow's going to die," said Ivy, "he also said that one of your injuries got infected by a mosquito or something."  
  
"Infected... infected, if I was infected, then I'd be dead right now," said Thistle, "Flash, I didn't think that you were that stupid."  
  
"Well you came out of the burrow every day for two days, and then you stopped, what were you expecting me to think?"  
  
"I just thought that I needed to rest a little more. I might have gotten infected if I kept on coming out in my weakened state."  
  
"I never thought about that," said Flash.  
  
"Back to Mallow's possible death," snapped Ivy.  
  
"Mallow's not going to die, why would you think that," said Thistle, "when I woke up and saw that you were gone, Mallow was sitting up and eating some of the grass that Splotch brought down there."  
  
"I still stand by my decision," said Flash, "he might be feeling better now, but there's still a chance that he'll catch a fever or something and start to feel worse. That happens a lot to injured rabbits."  
  
"I guess your right," said Thistle. Just then, Snowfoot and Horace came running across the field towards them. Flash ran out to meet them. Snowfoot and Horace then took off but Flash ran back to them.  
  
"I'm gonna go on a patrol with Horace and Snowfoot," said Flash, "I'll tell Splotch to look after you, okay."  
  
Ivy and Thistle nodded and Flash took off towards where Splotch was eating grass farther out in the field. The two injured rabbits sighed and went back into the burrow to get some more rest.  
  
************************************************************************  
  
6 days before  
  
Dogwood charged through the forest as fast as possible with blood dripping from his various wounds. He had no idea what had happened to Ivy, Thistle, and Mallow, but he didn't really care at the moment. All Dogwood wanted to do was get back to his burrow to rest.  
  
As he ran through the forest, Dogwood realized that he had no idea where Corona was. For all he knew, the only other surviving member of his patrol was also dead.  
  
As Dogwood ran, he came upon another weasel. It hissed at him, but Dogwood dodged around it and continued running until he ran straight into a tree. Dazed from the hard hit and hallucinating do to blood loss, Dogwood stumbled and collapsed onto the floor. Then, he passed out.  
  
Dogwood woke up an hour later and began to head back to the warren. He didn't run as fast this time, not wanting to run into another tree. But as he continued his slow pace, the blood on his fur attracted elil.  
  
Dogwood hadn't taken many hard hits from the weasels, but most of their attacks had made him bleed. Even though most of the bleeding had stopped, Dogwood had a couple of cuts that continued to bleed as he made his getaway. Though the bleeding stopped while Dogwood was passed out, the rather large rabbit's fur was somewhat covered in blood.  
  
A fox, not Red Rage, was the first member of the elil family to come after Dogwood. Dogwood ran as fast as he could, but he couldn't escape from it. He eventually hid in a bush and the fox walked right passed him. Then a weasel came, then two stoats, then a cat. Dogwood, however, used all of the tricks that Winters Wrath had taught him to get away from the predators.  
  
Eventually, Dogwood jumped in a small brook and washed the blood off of his fur. He also took a drink, and the helped him gather enough strength to finish his journey back to his warren. He looked happy when he walked through the trees that separated his warren from the forest. His smile faded. He saw no one. 


End file.
